LIBRARY 

OF  THK 

University  of  California. 

Class 

Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/broaderelementarOOgordrich 


for  Sour  niDrary 


The  Worth  of  Words  (BeU) $1.25 

How  to  Study  Literature  (Heydrick)       -       .       -  .75 

A  Brief  Outline  of  the  Books  I  Have  Read       -        -  .25 

How  Nature  Study  Should  Be  Taught  (Big»low)    -  1. 00 

Kature  Study  Lessons  (Crawford)           -       -       -  .75 
Lessons  on  Manners — Morals  (Dewey)             -         each  .75 

Character  (Vamum) 1.50 

The  Man  Who  Pleases  and  the  Woman  Who  Charms  .75 

Who's  Who  in  Mythology       -----  .75 

Who's  Who  in  History    -        -       -       -       -       -  .75 

Seeley's  The  Foundations  of  Education           -       -  l.QO 

Seeley's  A  New  School  Management        -        •        •  1.25 

Gordy's  A  Broader  Elementary  Education       -        -  1.25 

The  20th  Century  Educational  Problems          -        -  1.00 

The  Science  of  Study  (Moore)         -        -       -       -  1. 09 

Cook's  Psychology  {A  Simplified  Exposition)          -  1.25 

Stout's  The  Groundwork  of  Psychology           -        -  L25 

Stout's  Manual  of  Psychology         -        -       -       -  1 .50 

Mackenzie's  Manual  of  Ethics           -        -        -        -  1.50 

How  to  Become  Quick  at  Figures    -        -        -        -  1.00 

A  Dictionary  of  Synonyms  and  Antonyms       -        -  .50 

Common  Errors  in  Writing  and  Speaking        -        -  .50 

A,  B,  C  of  Electricity .50 

Fifty  Profitable  Occupations 1. 00 

HINDS,  NOBLE  &  ELDREDGE 
8 1.33.35  West  fSth  Street,  New  York  Citr 


Some  Dev  Speakers 


The  Best  American  Orations  of  To-day  (Blackstone)    $1 .25 

Selected  Readings  from  the  Most  Popular  Novels    -  1.00 

Pieces  That  Have  Taken  Prizes  in  Speaking  Contests  1.25 
Kew  Pieces  That  Will  Take  Prizes  in  Speaking  Contests  1.25 

Pieces  for  Every  Occasion  (Le  Row)        -        -        -  1 .25 

How  to  Attract  and  Hold  an  Audience  (Esenwein)  1 .00 

How  to  Use  the  Voice  in  Reading  and  Speaking  (Ott)  1.25 

How  to  Gesture,  New  Illustrated  Edition  (On)     -  1. 00 

A  Ten  Weeks*  Course  in  Elocution  (Coombs)         -  1.25 

Fenno's  New  Science  and  Art  of  Elocution       -        -  1.25 

Three-Minute  Declamations  for  College  Men           -  1 .00 

Three-Minute  Readings  for  College  Girls          -        -  1.00 

Handy  Pieces  to  Speak  (on  cards)     -        -        -        -  .50 

Acme  Declamation  Book          -        ...        -  .50 

Ross'  Southern  Speaker            -        -        -        -        -  1. 00 

New  Dialogues  and  Plays  (Primary;  Inter.  ^  Adv.)  1.50 

Commencement  Parts  (Orations,  Essays,  etc.)          -  1.50 

Pros  and  Cons  (Questions  of  To-day  Fully  Discussed)  1.50 

250  New  Questions  for  Debate         -        -        -        -  .15 

How  to  Organize  and  Conduct  a  Meeting        -        -  .75 

Palmer's  New  Parliamentary  Manual        -        -        -  .75 

Howe's  Hand  Book  of  Parliamentary  Usage    -        -  .50 

HINDS,  NOBLE  &  ELDREDGE 
31-33-35  Wot  1 5th  Str«et»  Nr«r  York  City 


A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY 


EDUCATION 


BY 

J.  P.  GORDY,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

u 

PROFESSOR  OF   THE  HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION   IN   THE  SCHOOL  OF   PEDAGOGY,  NEW  YORK 

UNIVERSITY.      AUTHOR  OP  GORDY's  NEW   PSYCHOLOGY,  AND    POLITICAL 

HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


HINDS,   NOBLE   &   ELDREDGE 

Publishers 
31-33-35  West  15TH  Street,  New  York  City 


GENERAL 


COPYRIGHT,  1903.  BY  HINDS  &  NOBLE. 

Entered  at  Stationers  Hall. 

ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED. 


PREFACE. 


This  book  is  written  primarily  for  two  classes  of  read- 
ers :  (i)  those  who,  having  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  col- 
lege or  normal-school  training,  occupy  positions  which 
make  it  their  duty  to  shape  the  educational  policy  of  their 
community ;  (2)  those  who,  as  students,  are  preparing  for 
such  positions.  With  the  needs  of  these  classes  in  mind, 
it  has  seemed  to  the  author  desirable  to  set  forth  as  expli- 
citly as  might  be  that  in  the  very  conception  of  education 
certain  presuppositions  are  involved,  and  all  the  more  de- 
sirable since  opinions  at  variance  with  these  presupposi- 
tions are  widely  prevalent. 

In  the  conviction,  also,  that  there  can  be  no  fundamental 
study  of  education  that  does  not  seek  to  ascertain  the  end 
education  should  strive  to  reach,  and  the  impulses  and 
capacities  it  must  appeal  to,  and  that  there  can  be  no 
rational  teaching  that  is  not  based  on  definite  notions  as  to 
these  matters,  he  has  endeavored  to  present  those  notions 
as  clearly  as  may  be ;  and  he  has  sought  to  base  all  his 
recommendations  as  to  practice  upon  his  conclusions.  A 
prominent  feature  of  the  book  is  the  emphasis  laid  upon 
the  doctrine  that  there  is  a  place  for  the  will  in  education. 
The  current  theory  inherited  from  Herbart,  and  by  him 
from  Rousseau,  that  everything  should  be  made  to  depend 
upon  interest,  that  there  should  b^  no  piu^t  in  educ^tipn, 

175615    ■ 


PREFACE. 

seems  to  the  author  thoroughly  pernicious  —  a  theory  that 
is  prevented  from  resulting  in  deplorable  consequences 
only  by  the  fact  that  most  of  those  who  profess  it  do  not 
take  it  seriously. 

While  these  difficult  questions  have  been  discussed  pri- 
marily with  a  view  to  the  needs  of  the  two  classes  above 
mentioned,  the  author  has  had  constantly  in  mind  a  third 
class  —  the  earnest,  enthusiastic,  and  capable  teachers  who, 
in  characteristic  American  fashion,  are  trying  to  remedy 
the  defects  of  their  early  education  by  present  arduous 
preparation  for  their  chosen  work.  To  such  readers  he 
would  fain  be  of  service,  and  to  this  end  has  prepared  a 
list  of  questions  for  each  chapter,  with  the  object  of  helping 
concentrate  the  attention  on  the  important  points. 

The  author  wishes  to  make  special  acknowledgment  of 
his  indebtedness  to  Doctors  Dewey  and  Baldwin,  and  all 
the  more  because  his  discussions  have  emphasized  points 
of  difference  rather  than  of  agreement ;  also  to  his  former 
assistant.  Dr.  Clarke  Wissler,  for  a  detailed  statement  of 
the  opinions  of  those  who  advocate  the  postponing  of  the 
teaching  of  reading,  writing,  and  drawing  until  the  child  is 
ten  years  of  age ;  but  most  of  all  to  Mr.  Theodore  F.  Neu, 
who  has  revised  the  manuscript  and  read  the  proof,  and  to 
whose  keen  intelligence  are  due  many  improvements  in 

the  manner  of  presentation. 

J.   P.   GORDY. 
New  York  University, 
March  31,  1903. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

PAGB 

A   Presupposition  of  Education:  Person  or  Physiological 
Machine 17 

I.  Theory  of  automatism  stated.  2.  Nothing  is  due  to  pur- 
pose, if  automatism  be  true.  3.  From  the  standpoint  of  this  the- 
ory education  has  to  do  with  the  brain  only,  not  with  the  mind. 
4.  Ordinary  facts  incapable  of  clear  statement  from  the  stand- 
point of  automatism.  5.  According  to  automatism,  physical 
causes  alone  account  for  all  we  do.  6.  Automatism  leaves  no 
place  for  logical  thinking.  7.  Automatism  makes  distinctions 
between  truth  and  falsehood  impossible.  8.  Theory  of  paral- 
lelism stated.  9.  Superiority  of  parallelism  over  automatism, 
xo.  This  superiority  haSj  no  significance  from  the  standpoint  of 
education.  11.  According  to  parallelism  the  relation  between 
matter  and  consciousness  is  like  that  between  substance  and 
shadow.  12.  Attempts  to  do  away  with  the  distinction  between 
laws  of  matter  and  laws  of  mind. 

CHAPTER  II. 

A  Presupposition  op  Education:  Person  or  Psychological 
Machine 31 

I.  Herbart's  theory  of  the  will.  2.  Metaphysical  difficulties  of 
the  theory.  3.  Educational  implications  of  the  theory.  4.  It 
does  not  make  a  philosophy  of  education  impossible.  5.  Conse- 
quences of  the  theory.  6.  Coleridge.  7.  Dr.  Dewey's  theory 
of  interest.  8.  Self-expression  as  understood  by  Dr.  Dewey. 
9.  Dr.  Dewey's  confused  account  of  interest.  10.  Dr.  Dewey's 
attempt  to  show  that  interest  in  an  end  guarantees  an  abiding 
interest  in  the  means. 


6  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   III. 

PAGK 

Democracy  and  Education 45 

I .  The  connection  between  education  and  the  form  of  govern- 
ment. 2.  The  German  school  system.  3.  Professor  Peck  on 
universal  education.  4.  Who  shall  receive  a  thorough  education 
according  to  Professor  Peck  ?  5.  The  relation  of  education  to 
political  philosophy.  6.  The  philosophy  of  education  should 
assume  the  truth  of  the  republican  theory.  7.  The  effect  of 
education  on  the  masses.  8.  The  dilemma  of  rulers.  9.  Three 
causes  that  work  towards  democracy.  10.  Progress  of  the  world 
towards  democracy. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  End  of  Education  as  conceived  by  the  Report  of  the 

Committee  of  Fifteen ^g 

I.  The  end  of  education  and  civilization.  2.  Must  education 
conform  to  the  principles  of  a  given  civilization  ?  3.  The  educa- 
tional statesman. 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  End  of  Education  as  conceived  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spen- 
cer AND  Dr.  Dewey 65 

I.  Education  preparation  for  rational  living.  2.  Mr.  Spencer's 
description  of  complete  living.  3.  Conflict  of  duties.  4.  The 
development  of  character  as  the  end  of  education. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  True  End  of  Education 72 

I .  The  uncleamess  of  the  fundamental  conceptions  of  science. 
2.  Conclusions  as  to  the  end  of  education  not  susceptible  of 
proof.  3.  Things  known  through  lower  mediacy.  4.  Things 
known  through  mediacy.  5.  Things  known  through  higher  im- 
mediacy. 6.  Intellectual  activity  an  ultimate  good.  7.  The  ap- 
preciation of  beauty  another  ultimate  good.  8.  Moral  character 
another  ultimate  good.  9.  Friendship  and  domestic  affection 
ultimate  goods.  10.  Sympathy,  also,  an  absolute  good.  11. 
Loyalty  an  ultimate  good.  12.  Comparative  value  of  the  various 
ultimate  goods  of  life.     13.  A  standard  for  judging  institutions. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS.  7 

CHAPTER   VII. 

PAGS 

Education  as  Preparation  for  Rational  Living 91 

I.  Education  and  public  opinion.  2.  Blunder  of  the  old 
Greeks.  3.  Mr.  Spencer's  Theory.  4.  The  constituents  of  ra- 
tional living:  Knowledge.  5.  Intellectual  Power.  6.  A  culti- 
vated emotional  nature.     7.  An  effective  will. 

CHAPTER  VIIL 

The  End  of  Elementary  Education 98 

I.  Material  and  intellectual  needs.  2.  Moral  causes  of  pov- 
erty. 3.  Intellectual  and  moral  training  compatible.  4.  No  con- 
flict between  the  needs  of  the  citizen  and  of  the  man.  5.  A 
liberal  education  and  the  elementary  school. 

CHAPTER   IX. 

The  Child's  Capital:  General 105 

I.  Begin  with  the  child.  2.  The  young  child  and  the  educated 
man.  3.  The  child  guided  by  interest.  4.  Habits  of  rational 
conduct.  5.  The  educational  centre  of  gravity.  6.  Curiosity. 
7.  The  constructive  impulse.  8.  The  art  impulse.  9.  The  social 
impulse.  10.  Imitation.  11.  Invention.  12.  Emulation.  13.  The 
ethical  impulse. 

CHAPTER  X. 

The  Child's  Capital:  Imitation 118 

I.  Professor  Baldwin  on  imitation.  2.  Imitation  defined. 
3.  Biological  imitation.  4.  Psychological  imitation.  5.  Plastic 
imitation.  6.  Imitation  of  thoughts  and  feelings.  7.  Is  educa- 
tion imitation  ?  8.  Education  due  to  all  our  impulses.  9.  Imi- 
tation and  the  constructive  impulse.  10.  Interaction  of  impulses. 
II.  Another  interpretation  of  Professor  Baldwin.  12.  Imitation 
and  intelligence. 

CHAPTER   XI. 

The  Function  of  Imitation 131 

I.  When  the  child  begins  to  imitate.  2.  When  imitation 
exerts  the  most  powerful  influence.  3.  Influence  of  heredity  on 
imitation.  4.  Plastic  imitation.  5.  Plastic  imitation  and  higher 
immediacy.  6.  Signe  Rink's  childhood.  7.  Imitation  and 
character.    8.  Imitation  and  r^^on. 


8  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

PAGB 

How  THE  Child's  Capital  is  to  be  Invested:  Imitation  .  .  141 
I.  President  Eliot  on  the  public  school.  2.  Imitation  the  chief 
source  of  ideals.  3.  Cardinal  Newman  on  imitation.  4.  Imita- 
tion and  character-building.  5.  Imitation  during  the  kinder- 
garten period.  6.  Imitation  in  dress,  etc.  7.  Influence  of  the 
child's  associates. 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

How   the    Child's    Capital    Is   to    Be    Invested:    Manual 
Training 150 

I.  Curiosity.  2.  The  constructive  impulse.  3.  Manual  train- 
ing and  respect  for  work.  4.  Manual  training  adapts  the  school 
to  the  many. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

How  the  Child's  Capital  Is  to  Be  Invested:   His  Art,  So- 
cial, Ethical,  and  Emulative  Impulses 158 

I.  The  art  impulse.  2.  The  social  impulse  and  language  train- 
ing. 3.  The  social  impulse  and  the  moral  nature.  4.  Rousseau 
and  Pestalozzi  on  moral  training.  5.  The  social  impulse  and  the 
study  of  history.  6.  Intellectual,  constructive,  art,  and  social 
impulses  contrasted  with  imitation  and  emulation.  7.  The  place 
of  emulation  in  the  school. 

CHAPTER   XV. 

The  Course  of  Study  in  the  Primary  Grades 167 

I.  The  foundation  on  which  the  school  must  build.  2.  Read- 
ing and  story-telling.  3.  Language  Lessons.  4.  Nature  study. 
5.  Drawing.  6.  Music,  physical  culture,  and  manual  training. 
7.  Number  lessons.  8.  Distribution  of  time.  9.  Young  chil- 
dren's need  of  supervision.  10.  The  economic  difficulty.  11. 
Second-year  work, 

CHAPTER   XVL 

Should  Reading  and  Writing  be  Taught  Before  the  Age 
OF  Ten? 177 

I.  It  is  argued  that  reading  should  not  be  taught  before  ten, 
because  (i)  the  function  of  books  is  supplementary.     2.  (2)  Be- 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

cause  the  child  has  no  "natural  desire  to  learn  to  read."  3.  (3) 
Because  reading  is  a  recent  accomplishment  of  the  race.  4.  (4) 
Because  of  the  development  of  the  nervous  system.  5.  (5)  Be- 
cause the  fundamental  muscles  develop  before  the  accessory. 
6.  Objections  summarized.  7.  Practical  argument  in  favor  of 
current  practice.     8.  Relation  between  the  real  and  the  ideal. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

Concentration  and  Correlation 186 

I.  The  law  of  interest.  2.  Concentration  defined.  3.  The 
principle  upon  which  specialization  depends.  4.  Interest  in  the 
individual  and  scientific  interest.  5.  Interest  not  a  criterion  of 
educational  method.  6.  Cultivation  of  intellect:  Its  place  in 
education.    7.  Training  to  think.    8.  Correlation. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

The  Fetich  of  General  Method 196 

I.  General  method  explained.  2.  What  determines  the  valid- 
ity of  method.  3.  Action  of  the  mind  (i)  in  connection  with 
grammar.  4.  (2)  In  connection  with  history.  5.  (3)  In  connec- 
tion with   arithmetic.      6.   (4)    In    connection   with    literature. 

7.  Summing  up  conclusions  relating  to  the  action  of  the  mind 
in  connection  with  grammar,  history,  arithmetic,  and  literature. 

8.  Possible  defence  of  the  Herbartian  theory.  9.  Three  pro- 
cesses not  usually  required.  10.  How  psychology  may  help  the 
teacher. 

CHAPTER   XIX. 

The  Grammar  School  Curriculum 21a 

I.  Difficulty  of  mapping  out  the  work  through  the  grades. 
2.  Kind  of  work  to  be  done.  3.  History  and  literature.  4.  Bos- 
ton and  French  and  old  Athenian  schools  compared.  5.  The 
amount  of  reading  required  by  Massachusetts  schools.  6.  Arith- 
metic. 7.  Political  geography.  8.  Nature  study.  9.  Electives. 
10.  Language  and  grammar.  11.  Elements  of  a  liberal  educa* 
tion  from  the  start. 


lO  TABLE   OF    CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   XX. 

FAGB 

The   Most  Important  Problem  of   Public   School  Adminis- 
tration  224 

I.  Man  and  nature  the  central  subjects.  2.  Need  of  adapting 
work  to  individual  students.  3.  Why  the  integrity  of  the  college 
is  threatened.  4.  Responsibilities  of  the  learned  professions. 
5.  Do  existing  conditions  discriminate  against  the  poor  ?  6.  In- 
jury to  all  grades  of  schools  through  disregard  of  the  unequal 
capacity  of  pupils. 

CHAPTER   XXI. 

Departmental  Instruction  in  the  Grammar  School  .  .  .  232 
I.  Proposed  transformation  objected  to  as  impracticable.  2.  Is 
the  existing  system  sacred.^  3.  The  grammar  and  high  school 
compared.  4.  Why  specialists  are  not  needed  through  all  the 
grades.  5.  When  the  study  of  facts  in  their  logical  relation 
should  begin.  6.  Advantages  of  specialization  in  teaching. 
7.  Objections  to  the  existing  system.  8.  Existing  system  requires 
teachers  to  teach  subjects  in  which  they  are  not  interested. 

CHAPTER   XXII. 

The  Educational  Value  of  History 241 

I.  Educational  values  and  method.  2.  History  (i)  increases 
one's  knowledge  of  himself  and  his  fellows.  3.  (2)  Develops 
sympathy  and  charity.  4.  (3)  Makes  us  realize  that  nations,  like 
individuals,  must  act  in  accordance  with  moral  law.  5.  (4)  Pre- 
pares for  citizenship.  6«  (a)  By  the  knowledge  it  imparts.  7.  (b) 
By  developing  a  certain  kind  of  reasoning  power.  8.  (c)  By 
fostering  a  high  civic  ideal.  9.  The  Theory  of  the  Sophists. 
10.  Its  American  counterpart.  11.  Children  may  study  history 
with  profit. 

CHAPTER   XXIII. 

The   Educational  Value  of   Spelling,   Language   Lessons, 

AND  Grammar 252 

I.  Spelling  has  little  educational  value.  2.  The  uses  of  for- 
gotten knowledge.  3.  Conventional  value  of  spelling.  4.  What 
words  children  should  be  taught  to  spell.     5.  Conventions^  an4 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS.  H 

PAGB 

real  value  of  the  ability  to  use  good  English.  6.  Language  les- 
sons should  deepen  a  child's  interest  in  his  work.  7.  Grammar 
(i)  cultivates  the  capacity  of  discrimination.  8.  (2)  Promotes 
the  study  of  the  mind.  9.  (3)  Should  illustrate  the  difference  be- 
tween knowledge  and  opinion.  10.  At  what  age  should  grammar 
be  studied. 

CHAPTER   XXIV. 

The  Educational  Value  of  Reading 261 

I.  Reading  and  education.  2.  Dr.  Harris  on  "The  educa- 
tional value  of  reading."  3.  The  educational  value  of  reading 
and  observation  lessons.  4.  Mistakes  in  the  teaching  of  reading. 
5.  Value  of  the  knowledge  of  real  men.  6.  How  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  a  man  of  thought.  7.  Literature  in  the  elementary 
school :  Homer  and  Shakspere.  8.  Burns,  Lowell,  and  Holmes. 
9.  What  literature  is  available  for  school  purposes.  10.  Pleasure 
to  be  derived  from  Uterature. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

The  Educational  Value  of  Arithmetic ,    274 

I.  Arithmetic  as  a  science  and  as  an  art.  2.  Educational 
value  of  arithmetic  as  an  art.  3.  Arithmetic  as  an  art  should 
give  definiteness  to  all  our  concepts.  4.  Two  methods  of  teach- 
ing arithmetic  as  an  art.  5.  (i)  How  arithmetic  may  give  defi- 
niteness to  the  concepts  of  elementary  science.  6.  (2)  To  the 
concepts  of  geography.  7.  (3)  Ideas  acquired  out  of  school. 
8.  Incidental  and  accidental  teaching  of  form  subjects.  9.  Arith- 
metic as  a  science  (i)  makes  clear  the  difference  between  first 
and  second-hand  knowledge.  10.  (2)  Different  kinds  of  first- 
hand knowledge.  11.  Arithmetic  as  a  science  the  product  of 
deductive  reasoning.  12.  Too  much  time  given  to  arithmetic. 
13.  The  grammar  school  the  university  of  the  masses. 


CHAPTER  XXVL 

The  Educational  Value  of  Nature  Study 285 

I.  Nature  study  (i)  increases  our  interest  in  nature.  2.  (2)  De- 
velops a  realization  of  law  and  cultivates  openmindness.  3.  (3)  In- 
cites to  speciaUzation  along  the  lines  of  natural  bent. 


12  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXVIL 

rAGS 

School  Management 290 

I.  The  object  of  discipline.  2.  The  function  of  education. 
3.  The  principle   of  anarchy.     4.  The  problem   of  the  school. 

5.  The  child  may  learn  to  love  a  rational  life  (i)  because  he 
wishes  to  be  like  his  teacher.  6.  (2)  Because  his  teacher  loves  a 
rational  life.  7.  The  influence  of  imitation  on  Roman  education. 
8.  The  teacher  and  the  source  of  the  ideals  of  the  pupil. 

CHAPTER   XXVin. 

The  Small  High  School 297 

I.  The  general  principle  upon  which  the  proper  work  of  the 
small  high  school  depends.  2.  The  large  high  school  not  a 
model  for  the  small  high  school.  3.  The  report  of  the  Commit- 
tee of  Ten  on  the  identity  of  the  needs  of  those  who  are  and 
those  who  are  not  going  to  college.  4.  The  small  high  school 
should  teach  (i)  political  economy.      5.    (2)  American    history. 

6.  But  (3)  not  a  foreign  language.  7.  The  course  of  study  of 
the  small  high  school  to  be  determined  in  part  by  the  capacity  of 
the  teachers  and  by  its  equipment.  8.  English  and  American 
history  should  be  substituted  for  general  history.  9.  Summary 
of  the  course  of  study. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Education,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  mind  which  is 
being  educated,  consists  of  a  vast  series  of  changes  ;  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  teacher,  of  the  influences  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  mind  to  bring  those  changes  about.  But  the 
intelligent  use  of  means  to  this  end  presupposes  not  only 
an  idea  of  the  type  of  character  for  the  sake  of  which  the 
changes  are  desired,  but  also  of  the  mind  in  which  it  is  to 
be  developed.  For  our  opinion  as  to  what  the  mind  may 
become  depends  upon  our  opinion  of  its  essential  nature. 
If  we  believe  that  the  thoughts,  feelings,  and  volitions  of 
a  human  being  are  the  mechanical  and  inevitable  results  of 
the  influences  brought  to  bear  upon  him,  we  are  bound 
to  think  of  him  as  one  of  the  links  in  the  vast  enginery  of 
nature,  and  education  cannot  consider  him  as  having  any- 
thing to  do  with  his  own  development.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  belieye  that  the  mind  is  essentially  active,  then  educa- 
tion has  an  entirely  different  problem  to  solve,  the  problem 
of  supplying  the  mind  with  occasions  of  its  own  activity. 

The  lines  of  our  subject  are,  therefore,  marked  out  for 
us  by  its  character.  We  must  first  seek  to  determine  the 
essential  nature  of  the  mind,  whether  it  is  active  or  pas- 
i^ive,  and  then  endeavor  to  ascertain  the  end  of  education. 
This  accomplished,  we  must  investigate  the  means  by  which 
the  ideal  of  education  may  be  approximately  realized. 

But  it  is  already  evident  that  the  question  of  means 
must  be  considered  from  two  points  of  view.      For  the 

^3 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

changes  that  take  place  in  the  mmd  at  any  moment  are 
due  not  only  to  the  particular  influences  brought  to  bear 
upon  it,  but  to  the  nature  of  the  mind,  and  that  not  simply 
as  active  or  passive,  but  as  endowed  with  certain  impulses 
and  native  tendencies.  In  order  to  furnish  an  adequate 
explanation  of  a  given  state  of  anger,  for  example,  we  have 
to  determine  both  what  it  was  that  occasioned  the  anger 
and  what  it  is  in  human  beings  that  makes  such  a  state 
possible.  In  considering  the  means  of  education,  there- 
fore, we  are  obliged  to  study  the  impulses  of  human  nature 
which  make  education  possible,  as  well  as  the  material 
which  must  be  presented  to  the  mind  in  order  to  occasion 
the  changes  that  lead  towards  the  desired  end. 

But  the  question  of  means  must  be  further  subdivided. 
For  the  effect  of  the  material  presented  to  the  mind  de- 
pends very  much  on  the  way  in  which  it  is  presented,  or, 
rather,  the  mode  of  the  presentation  forms  an  important 
part  of  the  material.  Compare  George  Eliot's  sentence, 
"It  seems  to  me  there  must  always  be  pale  sad  faces 
among  the  flowers,  and  eyes  that  look  in  vain,**  with  a 
prosaic  expression  of  the  same  idea  :  It  seems  to  me  I  shall 
never  be  able  to  see  anything  beautiful  again  without 
thinking  of  something  sad,  —  and  the  effect  of  the  form 
in  which  an  idea  is  expressed  becomes  very  evident.  A 
rational  theory  of  education,  therefore,  requires  us  not  only 
to  know  what  our  pupils  should  study,  but  the  manner  in 
which  the  subjects  should  be  taught :  and  this  necessitates 
a  discussion  of  method. 

A  yet  further  subdivision  is  necessary.  The  changes  in 
the  mind  in  which  education  consists  are  exceedingly  com- 
plex and  numerous,  the  matter  to  be  presented  to  it  indefi- 
liitely  extensive  and  various.      The   rational    practice   of 


INTRODUCTION.  1 5 

education,  therefore,  requires  us  not  only  to  know  in  a 
general  way  the  changes  which  we  wish  to  bring  about  in 
the  minds  of  our  pupils,  and  the  subjects  which  they  must 
study,  but  the  method  according  to  which  they  must  be 
taught.  Or,  rather,  in  order  to  have  a  thorough  grasp  of 
method,  we  need  to  know  the  precise  effect  which  a  given 
phase  of  a  subject  ought  to  produce.  The  teacher's  subjects 
are  his  tools ;  in  order  to  use  them  effectively,  he  needs  to 
know  the  sort  of  influence  which  each  of  them  ought  to 
have  in  the  shaping  of  the  mind  —  he  ought  to  know  their 
educational  values. 

When  we  have  considered  the  influences  exerted  upon 
the  pupil  by  the  subjects  which  he  studies,  and  the  teacher's 
presentation  of  them,  there  remains  for  examination  an 
important  part  of  the  business  of  the  school.  Those  influ- 
ences to  which  the  pupil  is  subjected  which  are  designated 
by  the  term  discipline  have  a  direct  bearing  not  only  on 
the  immediate  work  of  the  pupil,  but  upon  those  habits  of 
conduct  which  a  wise  theory  of  education  seeks  to  form. 
The  subject  of  school  management  will,  accordingly,  form 
still  another  subdivision  of  the  question  of  the  means  to  be 
employed  in  the  education  of  the  pupil. 

We  may,  then,  roughly  indicate  the  subdivisions  of  our 
subject  as  follows : 

I.   The  nature  of  the  mind  —  active  or  passive,  person  or  thing. 
II.   The  end  of  education. 
III.   The  means  to  be  employed  in  reaching  it. 

1.  Subjective:  the  impulses  and  native  tendencies  which  make 

education  possible  —  the  "child's  capital." 

2.  Objective. 

a.  The  course  of  study. 

b.  The  method  of  teaching. 

c.  Educational  values. 

d.  School  management. 


l6  INTRODUCTION. 

The  first  two  general  subdivisions  grow  out  of  the  very 
nature  of  the  subject.  No  matter  what  phase  of  education 
is  considered,  whether  Kindergarten,  elementary,  secondary, 
or  advanced,  a  rational  treatment  of  it  must  be  based  on  a 
conception  of  the  nature  of  the  individual  whom  we  wish 
to  educate,  and  of  the  ideal  towards  which  we  wish  to 
develop  him.  But  the  means  which  education  should  em- 
ploy depend  largely  upon  the  stage  which  the  mind  has 
reached  in  its  development.  A  course  of  study  proper  in  a 
high  school  would  not  be  proper  in  the  primary  grades  ;  a 
successful  method  of  governing  college  students  would  not 
be  recommended  to  a  grammar-school  teacher.  It  must 
be  borne  in  mind,  then,  that  in  this  book  we  are  con- 
cerned only  with  elementary  education. 


A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 


CHAPTER   I. 

A   PRESUPPOSITION   OF  EDUCATION:    PERSON   OR 
PHYSIOLOGICAL   MACHINE. 

There  is  a  preliminary  question  which  must  be  an- 
swered before  there  can  be  any  intelHgent  discussion  of 
the  purpose  or  methods  of  education  :  What  is  the  nature 
of  the  mind  ?  Is  consciousness  an  active  process  deter- 
mined by  the  mind's  own  laws,  or  is  it  only  a  mechanical 
reflection  of  objects  ? 

Theory  of  Automatism  Stated — Automatism  gives  a 
precise  answer  to  this  question.  It  says  that  the  mind  is 
a  mere  thing  among  the  other  things  of  the  world.  It 
holds  that  at  a  certain  stage  in  the  evolution  of  the  cosmos 
organic  life  began  to  appear ;  that  later  a  nervous  system 
began  to  exist ;  that  at  some  point  in  the  development  of 
the  nervous  system  a  rudimentary  form  of  consciousness 
began  to  evolve ;  and  that  from  this  simple  beginning 
up  to  and  including  man  there  has  been  no  essential 
change  in  the  nature  of  mental  life.  Throughout  the 
entire  series,  from  the  lowest  and  most  incoherent  form 
of  organic  matter  to  the  most  highly  developed  human 

17 


1 8  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

being,  you  find,  according  to  automatism,  one  kind  of  cause 
and  one  only  —  matter.  The  matter  that  functions  in  the 
inorganic  world  does  indeed  differ  from  that  of  which  a 
highly  developed  nervous  system  is  composed.  But  it 
differs  only  in  the  degree  of  its  complexity.  And  as  the 
motions  that  take  place  in  the  simplest  forms  of  matter 
are  due  to  material  causes  only,  so  are  those  that  take 
place  in  the  human  body  —  what  we  call  consciousness, 
having  no  more  to  do  with  them  than  the  whiz  of  a  wheel 
with  its  revolution. 

Nothing  is  Due  to  Purpose,  if  Automatism  be  True. — 
If  this  theory  be  true,  we  must  change  our  attitude  towards 
human  beings.  It  can  no  longer  be  said  that  men  buy, 
sell,  steal,  kill  for  gold  or  for  anything;  purpose  has  no 
existence  among  the  realities  of  the  world.  Its  place  is 
taken  by  the  brain,  blindly  and  mechanically  obeying  the 
laws  of  matter.  Man  indeed  has  no  independent  exist- 
ence, unless  we  give  that  name  to  the  purely  material 
aggregate  known  as  the  human  body.  The  body,  consti- 
tuting the  innermost  nature  of  man  and  forming  a  part  of 
the  material  universe,  is  strictly  and  absolutely  governed 
by  material  laws.  We  get  up  in  the  morning,  dress,  eat 
our  breakfast,  go  to  our  place  of  business,  write  letters, 
engage  in  conversation,  not  because  we  are  intelligent 
beings,  but  because  our  brains  are  what  they  are  —  every 
movement  of  every  part  of  our  bodies  being  the  purely 
passive  product  of  mechanical  forces. 

From  the  Standpoint  of  this  Theory  Education  has  to 
do  with  the  Brain  Only,  not  with  the  Mind.  —  From  the 
standpoint  of  this  theory  education  begins  and  ends  with 


A   PRESUPPOSITION    OF   EDUCATION.  19 

modifications  of  the  brain.  If  we  are  automatists,  we  may 
—  if  our  brains  permit  us  —  continue  to  talk  about  arous- 
ing the  aspirations  of  our  pupils,  stimulating  their  inter- 
ests, making  appeals  to  their  wills,  to  their  sense  of  duty 
or  of  honor.  But  if  we  are  bold  enough  to  accept  the 
logical  consequences  of  our  theory,  we  shall  be  sure  that 
such  appeals  either  accomplish  nothing  or  that  they  do  not 
operate  as  they  seem  to  do.  We  shall  be  sure  that  they 
derive  their  entire  significance  from  the  fact  that  in  some 
inscrutable  way  they  produce  a  peculiar  effect  upon  the 
body  —  not  through  the  agency  of  the  mind.  The  sentinel 
on  guard,  fighting  against  the  drowsiness  that  threatens  to 
overcome  him,  utters  the  word  "  duty  '*  and  straightway 
every  sense  becomes  alert,  every  muscle  tense,  through 
attention.  If  automatism  be  true,  how  are  we  to  explain 
this  fact  ?  Are  we  to  say  that  it  was  the  desire  of  the 
sentinel  not  to  betray  his  trust  that  enabled  him  to  over- 
come his  drowsiness.?  That  would  impute  efficiency  to 
consciousness,  that  a  state  of  his  mind  caused  something, 
while  the  theory  maintains  that  what  he  does  is  due  to  his 
brain  alone. 

Ordinary  Facts  Incapable  of  Clear  Statement  from  the 
Standpoint  of  Automatism.  —  From  the  point  of  view  of 
automatism  the  fact  is  not  only  inexplicable,  but  the  very 
attempt  to  state  it  involves  one  in  a  labyrinth  of  obscuri- 
ties. "  The  sentinel  on  guard  "  is  a  phrase  which  embodies 
contradictory  ideas.  "The  sentinel"  is  nothing  but  a 
group  of  atoms  every  change  in  which  takes  place  accord- 
ing to  material  laws.  But  "  on  guard  "  expresses  purpose, 
and  matter  has  no  purposes  to  serve.  Blind  matter  obey- 
ing  mechanical   laws  is   the  only  causal  agency  in   the 


20      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

universe.  "  The  sentinel  on  guard/'  then,  means  for 
automatism  nothing  more  than  that  the  aggregate  of  ma- 
terial atoms  which  constitute  the  sentinel  has,  in  obedience 
to  certain  mechanical  laws,  undergone  such  changes  as  to 
result  in  the  body's  taking  a  position  in  a  certain  place  and 
in  an  erect  form.  That  the  body  holds  a  gun  in  its  hands, 
that  the  gun  will  be  used  against  all  enemies,  are  inexplica- 
ble facts,  according  to  automatism.  To  say  that  they  are 
due  to  purpose  would  be  to  ignore  all  the  achievements  of 
science  from  Empedocles  to  Herbert  Spencer,  and  nafvely 
to  suppose  with  the  old  Greek  philosopher  that  the  reason 
why  a  leaf  falls  to  the  ground  is  because  of  its  desire  to 
rest  on  the  bosom  of  the  earth. 

The  phrase  "  fighting  the  drowsiness  "  is  just  as  contra- 
dictory from  the  standpoint  of  automatism.  To  the  senti- 
nel who  foolishly  supposes  that  he  is  something  more  than 
a  group  of  material  atoms  the  phrase  has  a  meaning.  To 
him  it  signifies  a  struggle  between  himself  and  purely  ma- 
terial conditions.  "  Drowsiness  "  he  regards  as  the  effect 
of  his  bodily  state,  and  *' fighting'*  as  the  effort  which  he, 
the  conscious  being,  makes  to  overcome  it.  But,  accord- 
ing to  automatism,  "  fighting  "  and  "  drowsiness  "  repre- 
sent nothing  but  material  changes  taking  place  in  material 
things.  We  are  again  confronted  with  the  same  dilemma : 
the  necessity  of  imputing  purpose  to  that  which,  according 
to  the  theory,  cannot  entertain  it,  or  of  admitting  that  the 
facts,  or  what  seem  to  be  the  facts,  of  ordinary  life  are 
incapable  of  being  stated  in  terms  of  the  theory. 

Obviously  every  statement  in  the  sentence  is  condemned 
to  the  same  fate.  "  Every  muscle  becomes  tense  through 
attention  "  has  a  meaning  only  on  the  supposition  that  the 
mind  has  an  influence  on  the  body.     Accepting  automa- 


A    PRESUPPOSITION   OF   EDUCATION.  21 

tism,  we  must  describe  the  fact  set  forth  in  the  sentence 
as  follows :  In  the  functioning  of  that  purely  physical 
machine  which  constitutes  the  sentinel  an  exceedingly 
complex  group  of  changes  in  that  part  of  the  machine 
called  the  brain  has  led  to  equally  complex  changes  in  the 
nerves  controlling  the  action  of  the  muscles  of  the  various 
parts  of  the  machine,  with  the  result  that  it  takes  an  erect 
position  in  a  certain  place.  This  machine  is  subject  to 
two  highly  complex  groups  of  internal  influences :  a  part 
of  the  atoms  of  its  brain  is  undergoing  changes  which  tend 
to  produce  such  an  effect  on  certain  nerves  and,  through 
them,  on  certain  muscles  as  will  make  an  erect  position  of 
the  machine  impossible ;  another  part  of  the  atoms  of  the 
brain  is  undergoing  such  changes  as  tend  to  counteract  the 
changes  of  the  first.  The  two  sets  of  forces  are  almost 
perfectly  balanced  until  somehow  those  brain  changes 
stimulate  the  nerves  controlling  the  tongue  in  such  a  way 
as  to  cause  it  to  utter  the  word  "duty,"  and  straightway 
the  nerve  changes  which  stimulate  the  muscles  that  keep 
the  body  in  an  erect  position  become  intensified  and  those 
having  an  opposing  tendency  become  weakened.  But  this 
"description,"  it  is  evident,  takes  no  account  of  the  only 
characteristic  features  of  the  fact.  That  which  sets  it  off 
from  a  mere  happening  in  the  external  world,  like  the  fall 
of  a  leaf  from  a  tree,  is  the  purpose  which  stupid  common 
sense  imputes  to  the  sentinel ;  but  automatism  leaves  no 
place  for  purpose. 

We  say  the  soldier  did  his  duty ;  we  might  with  equal 
reason  give  the  same  praise  to  a  tree  which  falls  to  the 
ground  just  in  time  to  crush  the  skull  of  a  notorious  crimi- 
nal. As  the  tree  falls  because  it  has  to,  so  the  tongue  of 
the  soldier  wagged  because  it  had  to :  each  obeyed  purely 


22      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

physical  laws  and  produced  in  turn  a  purely  physical 
result. 

According  to  Automatism,  Physical  Causes  Alone  Account 
for  All  We  Do.  —  Of  course,  if  automatism  be  true,  teacher 
as  well  as  pupil,  writer  as  well  as  reader,  are  hopelessly  en- 
tangled in  purely  physical  causation.  My  pen  writes  these 
lines  because  my  hand  is  compelled  by  the  changes  that 
take  place  in  my  brain  to  trace  them,  and  every  word  that 
the  teacher  utters  is  due  to  the  same  cause.  If  the  phys- 
ical laws  that  govern  my  brain  changes  will  permit  me  to 
think  logically,  I  shall  be  sure,  if  I  am  an  automatist,  that 
this  book,  for  example,  will  produce  an  effect  upon  its 
readers,  not  through  their  intelligence,  but  through  their 
nervous  systems.  And  the  teachers  who  are  automatists 
will  be  equally  sure  that  the  feelings  which  their  words 
bring  to  the  minds  of  their  pupils  are  significant  only  in  so 
far  as  they  indicate  changes  that  are  taking  place  in  their 
brains. 

Automatism  Leaves  No  Place  for  Logical  Thinking.  — 

But,  upon  second  thought,  both  these  statements  are  with- 
out warrant.  "  Logical "  itself  is  a  term  without  signifi- 
cance from  the  point  of  view  of  automatism.  There  are 
states  of  mind  called  belief,  and  these,  like  all  other  states, 
are  the  necessary  and  passive  accompaniments  of  brain 
changes.  To  attempt  to  draw  distinctions  between  them, 
to  say  that  some  are  logical,  would  be  to  forget  that  the 
various  states  of  mind  have  only  one  quality  in  common 
—  that  of  being  the  inevitable  result  of  brain  changes.  No 
state  of  mind  as  such  signifies  anything.  The  wakefulness 
of  the  sentinel  as  a  state  of  mind  counts  for  nothing ;  it  ^s 


A   PRESUPPOSITION   OF   EDUCATION.  2$ 

the  physical  condition  of  which  this  mental  state  is  the  sign 
that  counts.  And  if  the  laws  which  control  the  changes 
in  our  brains  will  permit  us  to  think  of  things  as  they  are, 
always  provided  automatism  be  accepted  as  true,  we  shall 
continue  to  endeavor  to  arouse  the  ambitions  of  our  pupils, 
to  excite  their  interests,  to  make  appeals  to  their  sense  of 
honor,  only  because  the  same  laws  have  in  some  inscruta- 
ble way  brought  about  brain  changes  which  compel  us  to 
have  a  profound  confidence  in  the  physical  effect  of  illu- 
sions ;  or,  rather,  we  shall  continue  to  do  it  because  the 
influences  which  act  upon  the  physical  machine  which  we 
ourselves  are,  make  that  and  nothing  else  possible.  If  the 
only  things  in  the  world  are  physical,  if  all  causation  is 
physical,  our  faith  in  the  efficiency  of  any  appeal,  if  it  has 
any  foundation,  must  be  grounded  on  our  confidence  in 
the  purely  material  effect  of  such  appeals. 

Indeed  according  to  the  theory  all  teaching,  all  writ- 
ing, all  conversation,  all  so-called  science  is  absurd.  All 
intercourse  of  mind  with  mind  presupposes  that  the  mind 
is  susceptible  of  being  influenced  by  intelligent  considera- 
tions, whereas  it  is  influenced  by  nothing  but  matter.  A 
man  who  expostulates  with  a  cyclone,  entreating  it  either 
to  suppress  itself  or,  if  it  will  not  do  that,  to  select  a  field 
of  operations  where  it  will  do  less  damage,  is  quite  as  logi- 
cal as  a  teacher  who,  believing  that  actions  are  not  influ- 
enced by  intelligence,  expostulates  with  an  unruly  boy, 
urging  him  to  change  his  course  because  of  the  influence 
he  is  exerting  upon  the  school  Cyclone  and  boy  alike 
are  inevitably  bound  to  obey  the  mechanical  laws  of  mat- 
ter. That  the  two  differ  in  an  important  particular,  that 
the  boy  can  be  made  aware  of  the  tendencies  of  his  con- 
duct, in  no  way  establishes  an  essential  difference  between 


24  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY    EDUCATION. 

them,  since,  according  to  automatism,  his  consciousness 
has  nothing  to  do  with  his  actions. 

Automatism  Makes  Distinctions  Between  Truth  and 
Falsehood  Impossible.  —  It  follows,  of  course,  from  what 
has  been  said,  that  this  statement  is,  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  theory,  absurd.  This  statement,  like  every  other, 
assumes  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  truth,  assumes,  in 
other  words,  that  in  an  act  of  real  knowledge  the  act  of 
cognition  is  something  radically  different  from  a  mere 
passive  effect;  that  the  mind,  in  knowing,  stands  in  a 
unique  relation  with  its  object,  a  relation  that  has  no 
counterpart  in  the  material  world.  Whoever  says,  "  I  see 
it,'*  "  I  believe  it,"  "  It  is  true,"  makes  assertions  into 
which  no  meaning  can  be  put  by  automatism.  All  the 
language  of  ordinary  life,  to  say  nothing  of  the  carefully 
guarded  statements  of  science,  presupposes  that  acts  of 
the  mind  may  come  into  a  peculiar  relation  with  objects  — 
a  relation  which  is  through  and  through  mental,  a  relation 
which,  however  hard  it  may  be  to  define  it,  we  all  have  in 
mind  —  when  we  assert  that  a  thing  is  true.  Automatism, 
on  the  other  hand,  maintains  that  the  one  thing  which  can 
be  asserted  of  states  of  consciousness  is  that  they  are  the 
passive  results  of  brain  changes  ;  and  this  is  equivalent  to 
saying  that  the  cause-and-eff ect  relation  is  the  only  one 
into  which  they  can  enter. 

Theory  of  Parallelism  Stated.  —  There  is  another  theory 
of  the  relation  between  the  mind  and  the  body  which  makes 
equally  impossible  the  presuppositions  which  must  be 
made  by  any  consistent  educational  doctrine.  This  theory, 
known  as  parallelism,  maintains  that  matter  and  mind  never 


A   PRESUPPOSITION  OF   EDUCATION.  25 

exist  apart ;  that  not  only  in  the  human  brain,  but  every- 
where, from  an  atom  to  the  largest  star,  matter  and  mind 
go  together.  Instead  of  supposing  with  automatism  that 
at  a  certain  point  in  the  development  of  the  nervous  system 
a  rudimentary  form  of  consciousness  began  to  exist,  parallel- 
ism maintains  that  a  germ,  so  to  speak,  of  consciousness 
exists  not  only  in  connection  with  the  most  elementary 
nervous  systems,  not  only  in  connection  with  every  form 
of  organic  life,  not  only  in  connection  with  every  complex 
form  of  inorganic  matter,  but  in  connection  with  the 
simple  elements  out  of  which  those  complex  forms  are 
built  up. 

Superiority  of  Parallelism  over  Automatism.  —  The  ad- 
vantage of  parallelism  over  automatism  as  a  metaphysical 
theory  is  manifest.  Automatism  offers  no  explanation  for 
the  appearance  of  an  entirely  new  phenomenon,  conscious- 
ness, at  a  certain  point  in  the  history  of  the  evolving  world. 
Parallelism  avoids  this  difficulty  by  postulating  a  universal 
and  necessary  connection  between  matter  and  conscious- 
ness—  by  postulating  that  wherever  matter  is,  and  in  what- 
ever form,  there  consciousness  is. 

This  Superiority  has  no  Significance  from  the  Standpoint 
of  Education.  —  But  this  superiority  has  no  significance  from 
the  point  of  view  of  education.  Granted  that  mind  and 
matter  are  inseparable,  and  that  for  that  reason  a  human 
being  has  a  mental  and  a  material  side ;  granted  that  those 
sides  are  so  related  that  the  question  as  to  which  of  them 
is  the  cause  of  the  other  in  a  given  case  becomes  absurd, 
since  it  is  the  nature  of  each  to  be  the  opposite  of  the 
other.    The  question  of  fundamental  importance  for  educa- 


26      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

tion  is,  which  of  these  two  sides  has  priority  ?  Docs 
the  mental  side  obey  laws  of  its  own,  the  material  accom- 
paniment passively  following  where  consciousness  leads  ? 
Or  does  the  physical  side  take  the  lead,  the  mental  accom- 
paniment mechanically  following?  Parallelism  does  not, 
cannot  hesitate  between  these  alternatives.  The  logic  of 
the  situation  compels  it  to  say  that  matter  and  mind  are 
like  substance  and  shadow,  the  former  containing  all  the 
causal  energy  of  the  universe,  the  latter  being  only  its  inert 
accompaniment. 

According  to  Parallelism  the  Relation  Between  Matter  and 
Consciousness  is  like  that  Between  Substance  and  Shadow. — 

What  is  the  object  of  both  automatism  and  parallelism.? 
To  introduce  simplicity  into  our  conceptions  of  the  uni- 
verse, to  close  every  breach  in  the  continuity  of  cosmic 
processes.  Parallelism  differs  from  automatism  in  that 
while  the  latter  accomplishes  this  purpose  from  one  point 
of  view,  it  fails  to  do  it  from  another.  Automatism  does 
indeed  present  to  our  conception  a  universe  whose  every 
element  is  under  the  absolute  control  of  physical  laws. 
But  facts  which  compel  recognition  force  it  to  admit  that 
in  connection  with  the  developing  nervous  system  a  new 
phenomenon  appears,  a  phenomenon  which  plays  no  part, 
serves  no  function,  has  no  purpose,  and,  what  is  worse,  has 
no  assignable  origin.  For  the  distance  from  matter  to 
mind  is  just  as  great  as  that  from  mind  to  matter.  And 
he  who  has  difficulty  in  conceiving  how  mind  can  influence 
matter  ought  to  have  equal  difficulty  in  seeing  how  matter 
can  give  birth  to  mind.  Now  parallelism  avoids  both  diffi- 
culties. It  postulates  a  connection  between  matter  and 
mind  as  a  part  of  the  nature  of  thinofSi,  thus  avoiding  the 


A  PRESUPPOSITION  OF  EDUCATION.  27 

necessity  of  accounting  for  consciousness  as  a  new  fact  in 
connection  with  animal  life,  and  at  the  same  time  solves 
the  problem  of  the  origin  of  consciousness  by  assuming  that 
there  is  no  problem  to  solve. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  both  parallelism  and  autom- 
atism must  take  the  same  attitude  towards  the  laws  of 
nature.  The  laws  of  gravitation,  cohesion,  chemical  affin- 
ity, and  the  like,  are  purely  mechanical  laws.  To  permit 
mind  or  consciousness  anywhere  to  take  the  initiative,  to 
compel  matter  to  be  passive  and  wait  upon  mind,  would  be 
to  make  precisely  the  break  in  the  continuity  of  cosmic 
processes  which  both  theories  aim  to  avoid.  It  would  be 
to  assert  that  under  certain  circumstances  all  the  changes 
in  matter  are  due  to  mechanical  laws,  and  that,  under  cer- 
tain other  conditions,  those  laws  cease  to  be  the  only 
laws  in  operation,  and  that  matter  comes,  to  some  extent 
at  least,  under  the  control  of  the  laws  of  logic  and  of 
mind. 

Nor  is  this  difficulty  avoided  by  Professor  Baldwin,  who 
says  that  it  is  not  the  brain  as  mere  matter,  but  the  brain 
plus  the  consciousness  that  forms  its  inseparable  accom- 
paniment, and  without  which  "the  brain  would  not  be  a 
brain,'*  which  causes  voluntary  movement.  For  he  admits 
that  the  principle  of  parallelism  would  be  violated  if  con- 
sciousness had  any  efficiency  whatever  in  producing  phys- 
ical effects. 

Evidently,  therefore,  from  the  standpoint  of  a  consis- 
tent theory  of  education  automatism  and  parallelism  are 
on  a  level.  Arguments,  discussions,  conversation,  have 
the  same  absurdity  from  the  point  of  view  of  one  theory 
as  from  that  of  the  other.  Both  assume  that  conscious- 
ness is  the  internal  passive  accompaniment    of  physical 


d8  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

changes,  whereas  all  argument  presupposes  that  it  can  be 
brought  under  influences  of  a  purely  intelligent  character. 

Attempts  to  Do  Away  with  the  Distinction  Between  Laws 
of  Matter  and  Laws  of  Mind.  —  Nor  is  the  case  made 
better  for  education  by  the  attempt  through  a  supposedly 
deeper  metaphysic  to  annihilate  the  distinction  between 
the  laws  of  matter  and  the  laws  of  mind.  By  maintaining 
that  the  laws  of  matter  are  themselves  simply  the  expres- 
sion of  the  will  of  an  infinite  consciousness,  that  they  are 
in  the  last  analysis  laws  of  mind,  some  thinkers  seem  to 
imagine  that  the  difficulties  upon  which  we  have  been  in- 
sisting are  obviated.  But  it  is  surely  unnecessary  to  insist 
that,  no  matter  what  the  metaphysical  character  of  the 
laws  of  nature  may  be,  they  wear,  to  the  look  of  our  ap- 
prehension, the  same  mechanical  character  which  they 
have  when  we  regard  them  as  laws  of  matter.  Whether 
the  law  of  gravitation  is  a  law  of  matter  or  of  mind,  a  tree 
that  falls  to  the  ground  in  obedience  to  it  will  make  no 
discrimination  between  a  good  man  and  a  bad  man  wha 
happen  to  stand  in  its  path.  If  the  universe  and  its  laws 
are  but  the  embodiment  and  externalization  of  the  nature 
of  an  infinite  consciousness,  educational  doctrine  has  no 
foimdation  if  it  is  maintained  that,  since  the  human  mind 
is  a  part  of  this  externalization,  it  has  no  autonomy,  obeys 
no  laws  of  its  own.  Education  as  consisting  of  influences 
exerted  by  one  intelligence  upon  another  cannot  be  con- 
ceived if  the  educating  intelligence  is  powerless  and  if  the 
intelligence  to  be  educated  cannot  be  got  at.  Make  what 
supposition  you  please  about  the  entity  with  which  our 
minds  are  associated  —  call  it  Matter,  with  plain  people  ;  or 
the  Unknowable,  with  Herbert  Spencer;    or  the  Merely 


A   PRfiStJPPOSItiON  OlP  EDtrCATiON.  ig 

Possible,  with  the  Positivists ;  or  Absolute  Consciousness, 
with  some  metaphysicians  —  and  you  have  done  nothing 
to  make  educational  theory  possible  so  long  as  you  con- 
tend that  consciousness,  to  be  educated,  must  obey  laws 
imposed  upon  it  by  an  outside  power.  If  mind  cannot 
come  into  contact  with  mind ;  if  it  has  no  ear  for  logic,  no 
eye  for  intelligence  ;  if  it  is  but  the  tail  of  a  metaphysical 
kite  with  no  agency  or  volition  of  its  own,  then  education, 
and  for  that  matter  science,  is  impossible. 


QUESTIONS   ON   THE   TEXT. 

1.  What  is  the  theory  of  automatism? 

2.  Show  that  if  this  theory  is  true,  nothing  which  we  do  can  be 
due  to  purpose. 

3.  Why,  if  it  is  true,  has  education  to  do  with  the  body  only  ? 

4.  Why  does  automatism  render  it  impossible  to  make  a  clear 
statement  of  ordinary  facts  ? 

5.  Why,  according  to  automatism,  must  physical  causes  account 
for  all  we  do  ? 

6.  Why  does  it  leave  no  place  for  logical  thinking? 

7.  Why  does  it  make  distinctions  between  truth  and  falsehood 
impossible  ? 

8.  What  is  the  difference  between  automatism  and  parallelism  ? 

9.  Show  that,  according  to  parallelism,  the  relation  between  matter 
and  mind  is  like  that  between  a  thing  and  its  shadow. 

10.  Why  must  any  attempt  to  identify  the  laws  of  matter  and  of 
mind  have  the  same  consequences  for  education  as  automatism  or 
parallelism  ? 

SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  Can  you  think  of   any  reasons  which  might  incline  men  to 
believe  that  automatism  is  true? 

2.  Can  you  cite  any  cases  in  which  men  act  precisely  as  they 
would  if  they  were  mere  automata  ? 

3.  What  makes  you  believe  that  you  have  a  mind  ? 

4.  Why  do  you  believe  that  other  people  have  mind*? 


30     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

5.  Would  your  reasons  be  valid  if  automatism  were  true  ? 

6.  What  is  the  relation  between  automatism  and  materialism  ? 

7.  Can  you  think  of  any  reasons  which  might  incline  men  to 
believe  that  every  kind  of  matter  has  a  bit  of  mind  stuff  connected 
with  it  ? 

8.  What  is  the  difference  between  mechanical  and  intelligent 
action  ? 

9.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  law  of  gravitation  and  the 
force  of  gravity  ? 

10.   Do  you  know  what  the  force  of  gravity  is? 


CHAPTER   II. 

A   PRESUPPOSITION   OF  EDUCATION:    PERSON   OR 
PSYCHOLOGICAL  MACHINE. 

Herbart's  Theory  of  the  Will.  —  There  is  another  class 
of  theories,  of  which  Herbart's  is  a  type,  which  equally 
eliminate  the  will  from  the  causes  that  determine  the  ac- 
tions of  a  human  being.  As  automatism  makes  the  actions 
of  men  depend  upon  a  purely  physical  mechanism,  so  Her- 
bartianism  makes  them  depend  upon  a  purely  psychical 
mechanism.  According  to  Herbart,  the  soul  is  merely  one 
among  the  other  monads  of  the  world.  The  only  thing 
which  the  soul  monad  can  do  is  to  resist  the  efforts  of  the 
other  monads  to  destroy  it  —  which  resistance  expresses 
itself  in  the  form  of  consciousness.  Feelings  are  the  result 
of  the  relations  between  states  of  consciousness,  and  will 
is  only  the  name  which  we  give  to  a  peculiar  feeling  when 
it  passes  into  action.  We  have,  according  to  Herbart,  two 
classes  of  desires,  one  accompanied,  and  the  other  not,  by 
a  belief  in  the  expediency  of  a  certain  action.  The  former 
passes  into  action,  the  latter  does  not ;  and  the  so-called 
consciousness  of  a  volition  is  nothing  but  the  consciousness 
of  the  passing  of  a  desire  into  action. 

Metaphysical  Difficulties  of  the  Theory.  —  If  we  were 
discussing  the  theory  from  the  side  of  metaphysics,  it 
would  be  insisted  on  that  this  theory  is  inconsistent  with 
itself.     Starting  with  the  postulate  that  the  soul  can  only 

31 


32      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

do  one  thing  —  resist  the  attacks  of  other  monads  upon  it 
—  the  theory  really  postulates  two  kinds  of  soul  activity. 
For  Herbart  concedes  that  feeling  as  well  as  knowing  is  a 
genuine  form  of  mental  activity.  And  the  Herbartians 
cannot  deny  that  feeling  as  well  as  knowing  is  a  product 
of  the  soul  without  denying  that  it  is  the  soul  that  feels. 

We  should  also  point  out  that  the  theory  is  untrue  to 
the  facts  of  consciousness.  According  to  the  theory,  the 
mind  is  purely  passive  in  its  so-called  acts  of  volition ; 
according  to  consciousness,  volition  is  the  active  product  of 
an  active  mind.  The  mind  seems  to  itself  in  its  acts  of 
volition  to  be  exercising  a  power  of  its  own,  sometimes  in 
strenuous  and  painful  opposition  to  desires  that  threaten 
to  break  it  down. 

Educational  Implications  of  the  Theory.  —  But  our  con- 
cern is  with  the  educational  implications  of  the  theory,  and 
our  contention  is  that  there  must  be  a  radical  difference 
between  a  philosophy  of  education  which  bows  the  will 
out  of  the  universe  whether  in  the  interest  of  a  physiologi- 
cal or  a  psychological  mechanism,  and  one  which  is  based 
upon  the  beUef  that  the  deepest  things  in  the  life  of  a 
human  being  rest  upon  his  will. 

The  theory  that  a  human  being  is  a  psychological  or 
metaphysical  machine  is  not  indeed  exposed  to  the  same 
difficulties  as  those  that  automatism  and  parallelism  have 
to  contend  with.  As  has  been  shown,  they  make  a  philoso- 
phy of  education  impossible,  because  they  leave  no  place 
for  the  effectiveness  of  appeals  to  intelligence.  If  all  cau- 
sation is  blindly  mechanical,  then  education,  since  its  object 
is  to  increase  the  effectiveness  of  intelligence,  is  pure  illu- 
sion.    As  well  appeal  to  the  shadows  that  dance  on  a  wall 


A   PRESUPPOSITION   OF   EDUCATION. 


33 


as  to  an  intelligence  that  is  a  passive,  nerveless,  forceless 
spectator  of  the  world. 

It  Does  not  Make  a  Philosophy  of  Education  Impos- 
sible. —  But  if  the  soul  is  a  metaphysical  machine,  there 
is  no  a  priori  reason  why  it  may  not  obey  laws  of  its  own. 
As  matter  must  obey  mechanical  laws,  so,  it  may  be  held, 
the  mind  is  obliged  by  its  nature  to  obey  mental  laws. 
Now  such  a  theory  does  not  make  a  philosophy  of  educa- 
tion impossible.  If  mind,  like  matter,  acts  as  it  does 
because  it  must,  and,  at  the  same  time,  obeys  laws  of  its 
own,  education  may  be  conceived  as  the  process  of  sur- 
rounding the  mind  with  influences,  subjecting  its  actions 
to  conditions  which  will  occasion  its  actions  more  and 
more  to  conform  to  a  preconceived  end. 

Nevertheless  such  a  theory  must  profoundly  affect  one's 
philosophy  of  education.  Is  there  in  the  minds  of  your 
pupils  a  will  upon  whose  cooperation  or  opposition  you 
have  to  reckon }  Are  you  to  conceive  of  them  as  beings 
whose  every  action  is  inevitably  determined  by  some  form 
of  interest }  Or  may  you  regard  them  as  possessed  of  an 
innate  power  of  resistance  to  the  powerful  currents  that 
would  sweep  them  from  their  moorings }  Plainly  one's 
philosophy  of  education  must  depend  upon  his  answer  to 
these  questions.  For  if  with  Herbart  we  hold  that  the 
actions  of  men  are  determined  entirely  by  their  interests, 
then  with  him  we  must  hold  that  the  most  important  thing 
in  education  is  the  development  of  interest.  But  if  we 
assent  to  the  reality  of  the  will,  of  a  power  that  can  throw 
its  weight  in  the  scale  of  the  weaker  interest  and  habitu- 
ally does  so  in  the  life  of  a  well-regulated  human  being, 
we  shall  realize  that  the  development  of  interest,  important 


34  A   BROADER  ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

as  it  is  from  any  point  of  view,  must  give  precedence  to 
the  training  of  the  will.  Without  a  well-trained  will  at  the 
helm,  the  life  of  every  human  being  must  drift  aimlessly 
and  helplessly,  the  sport  of  the  capricious  winds  of  impulse 
and  passion  that  beat  upon  it.  Surely,  as  Hinsdale  said, 
if  there  is  a  will,  a  power  of  active  volitional  attention,  its 
cultivation  is  the  *' educational  problem.'*  As  Dr.  Car- 
penter puts  it,^  "  it  is  in  virtue  of  the  will  that  we  are  not 
mere  thinking  automata,  mere  puppets  to  be  pulled  by 
suggesting  strings  capable  of  being  played  upon  by  every 
one  who  shall  have  made  himself  master  of  our  springs  of 
action."  Naturally,  in  the  opinion  of  the  same  author, 
the  acquirement  of  the  **  volitional  direction  of  attention 
.  .  .  should  be  the  primary  object  of  all  mental  discipline." 
As  the  Herbartians,  who  do  not  believe  in  the  existence  of 
the  will,  contend  that  the  primary  object  of  education  is 
the  cultivation  of  interest,  since  it  is  the  sole  spring  of 
action,  so  those  who  agree  with  Dr.  Carpenter  must 
believe  in  the  preeminent  importance  of  that  power  which 
alone  distinguishes  a  man  from  an  automaton. 

Consequences  of  the  Theory.  —  The  difference  between 
the  mind  as  the  writer  conceives  it  and  the  mind  as  the 
Herbartians  conceive  it,  is  fundamental.  To  say,  as  the 
latter  do,  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  will,  that  volition 
is  merely  the  passing  of  a  desire  into  action,  that  the  mind 
is  controlled  by  its  interests,  is  to  say  that  the  mind  at 
each  moment  is  controlled  by  the  feelings  then  present  to 
consciousness.  Yesterday  I  had  certain  feelings  and  under 
their  influence  formed  certain  resolutions;  what  signifi- 
cance can  they  have  for  me  to-day  when  the  feelings  are 

1  Hinsdale's  Art  of  Study,  p.  141. 


UNIVERSITY  ] 
^^^'iSi^W^^jKESUPPOSITION   OF  EDUCATION.  3^ 

gone  ?  Absolutely  none.  Yesterday  the  wind  blew  from 
the  west  and  my  rudderless  vessel  went  due  east ;  to-day 
it  comes  fresh  and  driving  from  the  north  and  my  course 
must  be  toward  the  south.  There  is  nothing  in  me  to 
enable  me  either  to  make  headway  against  it  or  to  offer 
any  obstacle  to  it.  I  am  the  helpless  victim  of  the  wind 
and  waves.  If  there  were  within  me  a  principle  of  action 
not  dependent  for  its  exercise  on  feelings  present  to  con- 
sciousness, this  principle  might  by  its  control  over  the 
attention  arouse  some  feeble  interest  of  an  antagonistic 
sort.  And  if  the  same  principle  of  action  were  of  such 
a  sort  as  to  make  it  possible  for  it  to  choose  between 
interests  present  to  it,  then  I  might  decide  to  act  on  the 
weaker  and  pursue  my  course  steadily  in  spite  of  the 
tornadoes  of  passion  that  would  turn  me  aside  from  it. 
But  if  there  is  in  me  no  such  principle,  no  such  rudder  of 
the  mind,  so  to  speak,  it  would  seem  that  a  steady,  persis- 
tent adherence  to  a  course  in  the  face  of  all  obstacles,  not 
only  from  moment  to  moment,  but  from  hour  to  hour  and 
day  to  day  and  year  to  year,  would  be  impossible. 

Coleridge. — The  difference  between  the  mind  as  we  con- 
ceive it  and  the  mind  as  the  Herbartians  conceive  it  may 
perhaps  be  more  clearly  brought  out  by  a  study  of  Cole- 
ridge. All  who  knew  him  well  agree  that  the  great  de- 
fect of  his  mind  was  his  weakness  of  will — weakness  of 
the  power  whose  function  it  is  to  make  an  effective  stand 
against  the  unimportant  interests  of  the  moment  which 
would  turn  the  mind  away  from  the  course  it  has  marked 
out  for  itself.  "At  the  very  outset  of  his  career,"  says 
Dr.  Carpenter,  "  when  he  had  found  a  bookseller  generous 
enough  to  promise  him  thirty  guineas  for  poems  which 


36  A    BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

he  recited  to  him,  and  might  have  received  the  whole  sum 
immediately  upon  delivery  of  the  manuscript,  he  went  on 
week  after  week  begging  and  borrowing  for  his  daily  needs 
in  the  most  humiliating  manner,  until  he  had  drawn  from 
his  patron  the  whole  of  the  promised  purchase-money, 
without  supplying  him  with  a  line  of  that  poetry  which  he 
had  only  to  write  down  to  free  himself  from  obligation.  .  .  . 
All  accounts  of  Coleridge's  habits  of  thought  as  mani- 
fested in  his  conversation  agree  in  showing  that  his  train 
of  mental  operations  once  started  went  on  of  itself,  some- 
times for  a  long  distance  in  the  original  direction  with  a 
divergence  into  some  other  track,  according  to  the  consec- 
utive suggestions  of  his  own  mind,  or  to  new  suggestions 
introduced  into  it  from  without."  How  did  it  happen  that 
the  train  of  thought  going  on  of  itself  sometimes  travelled 
for  a  long  distance  in  the  same  direction  ?  It  was  because 
of  the  continuance  of  the  interests  that  dominated  it  at  the 
start,  not  because  he  had  marked  out  for  himself  a  goal 
toward  which  he  pressed  forward  in  spite  of  interests  that 
tended  to  draw  him  away  from  it. 

This  explanation  is  irresistibly  suggested  by  another 
incident  which  Dr.  Carpenter  mentions.  A  lady  narrated 
to  him  the  experience  which  she  and  her  schoolgirl  friends 
at  Highgate  used  to  have  at  the  time  of  Coleridge's  resi- 
dence there.  When  the  latter  succeeded  in  getting  one  of 
the  children  to  talk  with  him,  the  conversation  would  soon 
"  pass  into  the  accustomed  monologue,  altogether  beyond 
the  comprehension  of  the  poor  child,"  who  vainly  endeav- 
ored to  free  herself  that  she  might  resume  her  sport. 
Manifestly  the  cause  of  the  conversation  was  not  deter- 
mined by  some  preconceived  end,  but  by  the  predomi- 
nance  of    metaphysical    interests   with   which   his   mind 


A    PRESUPPOSITION   OF  EDUCATION.  37 

was  full  and  on  account  of  which  the  child  was  entirely 
forgotten. 

Coleridge*s  conversation,  as  Carlyle  describes  it,  admits 
of  no  other  explanation.  "  He  began  anywhere  ;  you  put 
some  question  to  him,  made  some  suggestive  observation ; 
instead  of  answering  this,  or  decidedly  setting  out  towards 
answer  of  it,  he  would  accumulate  formidable  apparatus, 
logical  swim-bladders,  transcendental  life-preservers  and 
other  precautionary  and  vehiculatory  gear  for  setting  out ; 
perhaps  did  at  last  get  under  way,  but  was  swiftly  solicited, 
turned  aside  by  the  glance  of  some  radiant  new  game  on 
this  hand  or  that,  into  new  courses.  .  .  .  His  talk,  alas  I 
was  distinguished,  like  himself,  by  irresolution ;  it  disliked 
to  be  troubled  with  conditions,  abstinences,  definite  fulfil- 
ments ;  loved  to  wander  at  its  own  sweet  will.  It  was 
talk  not  flowing  anywhither  like  a  river,  but  abounding 
everywhere  in  inextricable  currents  and  regurgitations  like 
a  sea  or  lake ;  terribly  deficient  in  definite  goal  or  aim, 
nay,  often  in  logical  intelligibility;  what  you  were  to  be- 
lieve or  do  on  any  earthly  or  heavenly  thing  obstinately 
refusing  to  appear  from  it/' 

His  notorious  lack  of  punctuality  may  be  ascribed  to  the 
same  cause.  Says  De  Quincey  :  "  Nobody  who  knew  him 
ever  thought  of  depending  upon  any  appointment  he  might 
make ;  spite  of  his  uniformly  honorable  intentions,  nobody 
attached  any  weight  to  his  assurance  infuturo  ;  those  who 
asked  him  to  dinner  or  any  other  party,  as  a  matter  of 
course  sent  a  carriage  for  him,  and  went  personally  or  by 
proxy  to  fetch  him.*' 

The  accounts  given  of  Coleridge's  lectures  are  just  what 
we  would  expect  upon  the  supposition  that  one  of  his  most 
nota^blQ   traits   of   mind  was  lack  of   will.      Says    Henry 


38      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

Crabb  Robinson :  "  Accompanied  Mrs.  Ruth  to  Cole- 
ridge's lecture.  In  this  he  surpassed  himself  in  the  art  of 
talking  in  a  very  interesting  way,  without  speaking  at  all 
on  the  subject  announced.  According  to  advertisement, 
he  was  to  lecture  on  *  Romeo  and  Juliet'  and  Shakespeare's 
female  characters.  Instead  of  this  he  began  with  school- 
flogging,  in  preference  at  least  to  Lancaster's  mode  of 
punishing,  without  pretending  to  find  the  least  connection 
between  that  topic  and  poetry.  Afterwards  he  remarked 
on  the  character  of  the  age  of  Elizabeth  and  James  I.  as 
compared  with  that  of  Charles ;  distinguished,  not  very 
clearly,  between  wit  and  fancy ;  referred  to  the  different 
languages  of  Europe ;  attacked  the  fashionable  notion 
concerning  poetic  diction  ;  ridiculed  the  tautology  of  John- 
i  son's  line,  *  If  observation  with  extended  view,'  etc. ;  and 
warmly  defended  Shakespeare  against  the  charge  of  impu- 
rity." Lamb's  comment  was  certainly  to  the  point:  "He 
promised  a  lecture  on  the  Muse  in  *  Romeo  and  Juliet,'  and 
in  its  place  he  has  given  us  one  in  the  manner  of  the 
Muse."  In  the  next  lecture  Coleridge  managed  to  stick 
to  his  subject,  but,  as  we  learn  from  the  same  authority, 
he  failed  completely  the  third  time.  "  Tuesday  we  were 
to  hear  a  continuation  of  the  theme.  Alas !  Coleridge 
began  with  a  parallel  between  religion  and  love,  which, 
though  one  of  his  favorite  themes,  he  did  not  manage 
successfully.  Romeo  and  Juliet  were  forgotten.  And 
in  the  next  lecture  we  are  really  to  hear  something  of 
these  lovers.  .  .  .  Instead  of  a  lecture  on  a  definite 
subject,  we  have  an  unmethodical  rhapsody,  very  delightful 
to  you  and  me  and  only  offensive  from  the  certainty  that 
it  may  and  ought  to  offend  those  who  came  with  other 
expectations."     It  would  be  hard  to  find  a  more  vivid  illus- 


A   PRESUPPOSITION   OF   EDUCATION. 


39 


tration  of  the  truth  of  Dr.  Hinsdale's  emphatic  state- 
ment :  "  A  man  who  can  only  do  what  interests  him  is  not 
half  a  man." 

The  importance  of  this  question  would  seem  to  justify  a 
somewhat  detailed  examination  of  Dr.  Dewey's  elaborate 
presentation  of  a  philosophy  of  education  which  makes  the 
development  of  interest  the  supreme  object  of  all  training. 

Dr.  Dewey's  Theory  of  Interest.  —  Let  it  first  be  re- 
marked that  Dr.  Dewey's  statement  of  the  case  in  the 
"  educational  lawsuit  of  interest  versus  effort  cannot  be 
accepted."  ^  If  we  can  secure  interest  in  a  given  set  of 
facts  or  ideas,  we  may  be  perfectly  sure  that  the  pupil  will 
direct  his  energies  towards  mastering  them."  That  is  not 
true,  for  two  reasons  :  when  we  have  developed  interest  in 
a  given  subject,  we  have  no  guarantee  that  it  will  be  per- 
manent. Interest  is  a  state  of  mind  ;  when  the  state  of 
mind  passes  away  interest  ceases  to  be.  And  because  we 
felt  it  to-day  we  are  not  able  to  say  that  we  shall  experi- 
ence it  to-morrow.  Moreover,  we  have  no  sort  of  reason 
for  declaring  that  it  will  not  come  into  competition  with  a 
stronger  interest.  If  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  power  of 
will,  it  is  a  question  of  the  relative  strength  of  interests : 
the  stronger  interest  must  drive  the  weaker  to  the  wall. 

Nor  does  "the  theory  of  effort  say  that  voluntary 
attention  should  take  precedence  over  spontaneous  atten- 
tion "  in  any  other  sense  than  this :  the  pupil  must  have 
some  interest  in  every  subject  to  which  it  is  his  duty  to 
attend,  and  the  theory  of  effort  maintains  that  he  should 
be  required  to  attend  to  that  whether  his  interest  in  it  is 
his  strongest  interest  or  not.  Nor  does  the  "theory  of 
1  The  quotations  are  from  Dr.  Dewey*s  pamphlet  on  Interest 


40      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

effort'*  say  that  "demands  are  constantly  made,"  that 
"  situations  have  to  be  dealt  with  which  present  no  features 
of  interest."  It  only  says  that  demands  are  continually 
being  made  which  present  features  of  less  interest  than 
are  offered  by  other  lines  of  possible  activity. 

Self -Expression  as  Understood  by  Dr.  Dewey.  —  Dr. 
Dewey  finds  a  common  false  assumption  in  the  theory  of 
effort  and  the  theory  of  interest  as  ordinarily  conceived : 
the  assumption  of  '*the  externality  of  the  object  or  idea 
to  be  mastered,  the  end  to  be  reached,  the  act  to  be  per- 
formed, to  the  self."  "  The  genuine  principle  of  interest,'* 
he  maintains,  *'  is  the  principle  of  recognized  identity  of 
the  fact  or  proposed  line  of  action  with  the  self;  that  it 
lies  in  the  direction  of  the  agent's  own  self-expression,  and 
is  therefore  imperatively  demanded  if  the  agent  is  to  be 
himself." 

Unless  Dr.  Dewey  means  by  his  "  genuine  principle  of 
interest "  to  draw  a  distinction  between  interests  which 
from  the  point  of  view  of  psychology  stand  on  a  level,  his 
principle  is  not  only  true  but  tautological.  A  boy  likes  to 
fight  because  he  is  combative;  he  does  what  he  sees 
another  boy  do  because  he  is  imitative ;  he  is  never  still  a 
moment  because  he  is  active ;  he  likes  to  talk  because  he 
is  social.  So  conceived,  it  is  self-evident  that  whatever  a 
boy  wishes  to  do  lies  in  the  direction  of  his  self-expression ; 
he  likes  to  do  what  he  does  because  his  nature  is  what  it 
is.  But,  so  conceived,  it  is  equally  evident  that  the  self 
which  he  wishes  to  express  may  be  precisely  the  one  which 
we  who  are  interested  in  his  development  do  not  want  him 
to  express.  Professor  James  says  that  he  would  if  he 
could  be  both  "handsome  and  fat  and  well-dressed  and 


A   PRESUPPOSITION   OF   EDUCATION.  41 

a  great  athlete.  So  the  seeker  of  his  truest,  strongest, 
deepest  self  must  review  the  list  completely  and  find  out 
the  one  on  which  to  stake  his  salvation."  We  are  not 
assisted,  therefore,  by  being  told  what  our  pupils  wish  to 
do  in  the  line  of  their  self-expression ;  what  we  need  to 
know  is  what  self  is  being  expressed,  and  what  means  are 
to  be  employed  to  prevail  upon  them  to  express  the  self 
which  we  regard  as  their  true  self. 

This  evident  distinction  Dr.  Dewey  has  taken  no  ac- 
count of.  "Genuine  interest  in  education,**  he  says,  "is 
the  accompaniment  of  the  identification  through  action  of 
the  self  with  some  object  or  idea  for  the  maintenance  of 
self-expression."  But,  as  has  just  been  seen,  this  interest 
may  accompany  the  identification  of  the  pupil  through 
action  with  widely  different  selves. 

Dr.    Dewey's    Confused    Account   of    Interest.  —  The 

same  confusion  reappears  in  his  definitions  of  interest. 
"  The  root  idea  of  the  term  seems  to  be  that  of  being 
engaged,  engrossed,  or  entirely  taken  up  with  some 
activity  because  of  its  recognized  worths  If  the  italicized 
phrase  merely  means  that  the  individual  is  engrossed 
with  a  thing  because  it  appeals  to  him,  if  every  idea  of 
moral,  aesthetic,  or  intellectual  worth  is  rigidly  excluded 
from  it,  no  exception  can  be  taken  to  it.  The  gambler  is 
intensely  interested  in  his  game,  and  never  more  so  than 
when  he  is  trying  to  cheat  his  victim  out  of  all  he  is  worth. 
But  the  context  makes  it  impossible  to  put  this  interpre- 
tation on  Dr.  Dewey's  definition.  In  the  very  next  par- 
agraph he  says  that  "  much  of  the  controversy  regarding 
the  use  of  interest  arises  because  one  party  is  using 
the   term   in   the  larger    objective   sensQ    of   recognized 


4^  A    BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

value  in  engrossing  activity,  while  the  other  is  using 
it  as  equivalent  to  selfish  motives."  But  those  who  use 
the  term  to  denote  the  emotional  accompaniment  of  en- 
grossing activity  include  both  selfish  motives  and  recog- 
nized value.  Devil  and  saint  are  equally  interested  in 
their  respective  activities.  The  burglar  planning  to  rob 
a  bank,  the  mother  pondering  the  education  of  her  child, 
are  equally  engrossed  with  the  subject  of  their  thoughts. 
That  you  disapprove  the  one  and  approve  the  other  does 
not  prevent  both  from  being  states  of  interest.  To  call  a 
mode  of  being  engrossed  interest  when  you  approve  of  it, 
and  to  refuse  to  give  it  that  name  when  you  disapprove 
of  it,  is  to  forsake  the  point  of  view  of  psychology  for  that 
of  ethics.  But  there  can  be  no  valid  description  of  inter- 
est except  as  a  state  of  mind. 

Having  confused  self  in  general  with  the  self  which 
education  seeks  to  develop,  and  interest  in  general  with 
interests  that  have  an  educational  value,  Dr.  Dewey  has 
but  one  more  step  to  take  in  order  to  reach  his  goal.  If 
he  can  show  that  interest  in  an  end  necessitates  an  abid- 
ing and  equal  interest  in  the  means,  he  has  simplified  the 
educational  problem.  Education  has  only  to  develop  an 
interest  in  the  proper  end  and  its  most  important  task 
is  done. 

Dr.  Dewey's  Attempt  to  Show  that  Interest  in  an  End 
Guarantees  an  Abiding  Interest  in  the  Means.  —  Dr.  Dewey 
proves  the  point  by  begging  the  question.  "  If,"  he  says, 
"the  means  are  recognized  truly  as  means,  .  .  .  then  the 
full  interest  in  the  end  is  at  once  transferred  to  the  so- 
called  means."  Again,  **  the  only  sure  evidence  of  desire  as 
against  mere  vague  wishing  is  effort,  and  desire  is  aroused 


A   PRESUPPOSITION   OF  EDUCATION. 


43 


only  when  the  exercise  of  effort  is  required."  Evidence  of 
desire  to  whom  ?  To  me  who  experience  it  or  to  an  outsider } 
Certainly,  I  who  experience  it  require  no  evidence  beyond 
the  consciousness  of  the  desire,  and  if  the  report  of  my 
consciousness  is  to  be  accepted,  it  is  one  thing  to  be  in- 
terested in  an  end  and  quite  another  to  have  an  abiding 
and  equal  interest  in  the  means  that  lead  to  it.  To  say 
that  whenever  the  ideal  is  really  a  projection  or  transla- 
tion of  the  self  it  must  strive  to  assert  itself,  that  it  must 
persist  through  obstacles,  is  to  contradict  the  plainest  and 
commonest  facts  of  experience.  Three  fourths  of  the 
tragedy  of  life  arises  from  the  fact  that  men  fail  ignomini- 
ously  to  live  up  to  their  ideals,  and  one  reason  why  they 
fail  is  because  of  the  uninteresting,  unattractive  character 
of  the  means  they  must  employ  to  reach  them. 

That  a  thinker  of  Dr.  Dewey*s  ability  should  be  reduced 
to  such  straits  in  order  to  use  interest  as  the  foundation 
of  his  philosophy  of  education,  that  he  should  confuse  self 
in  general  with  one's  best  self,  and  interest  in  general  with 
interests  that  have  an  educational  value,  that  he  should 
misstate  facts  of  universal  experience  by  contending  that 
whoever  is  interested  in  a  given  end  is  equally  interested 
in  the  necessary  means,  is  surely  a  cogent  argument 
against  his  position.  We  submit,  then,  that  the  ideal 
which  education  should  put  before  itself  is  that  of  a  human 
being  not  controlled  by,  but  controlling,  his  interests  —  a 
human  being  choosing,  under  the  guidance  of  an  intelligent 
will,  what  interests  shall  determine  his  activity. 

QUESTIONS   ON   THE   TEXT. 

1.  V'hat  is  Herbart's  theory  of  the  will? 

2.  What  are  the  metaphysical  difficulties  of  the  theory? 


44      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

3.  What  is  its  bearing  on  education? 

4.  What  is  the  study  of  Coleridge  intended  to  show? 

5.  State  Dr.  Dewey's  theory  of  interest.  ^ 

6.  What  does  he  mean  by  **  self-expression  "  ? 

7.  State  clearly  the  three  fallacies  of  which  he  is  the  sponsor  and 
show  clearly  that  they  are  fallacies. 

SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  Do  you  think  there  is  any  difference  between  will  and  desire, 
and,  if  so,  why  ? 

2.  What  is  the  difference  between  a  physiological  and  a  psycho- 
logical machine? 

3.  What  sort  of  laws  would  govern  the  movements  of  the  former, 
and  what  the  movements  of  the  latter  ? 

4.  The  Herbartians  maintain  that  it  makes  no  difference  whether 
we  believe  that  our  pupils  have  wills  or  not :  do  you  agree  with  them, 
and,  if  not,  why  not  ? 

5.  Show  that  a  boy  may  develop  into  any  one  of  an  indefinite 
number  of  selves. 

6.  Show  that  all  of  the  impulses  of  a  human  being  are  equally  a 
part  of  his  actual  self. 

7.  Show  that  some  of  these  impulses  are  antagonistic  to  education. 

8.  Show  by  illustrations  drawn  from  your  own  experience  that  it 
is  possible  to  have  interests  which  possess  no  educational  value. 

9.  Would  you  say  that  burglars,  thieves,  pickpockets,  murderers, 
have  no  interests  ? 

10.  Illustrate  from  your  own  experience  the  fact  that  you  may  really 
care  for  an  end,  and  yet  find  the  means  which  are  necessary  to  attain 
it  so  uninteresting  that  you  cannot  bring  yourself  to  employ  them. 


CHAPTER  III. 

DEMOCRACY  AND  EDUCATION. 

The  Connection  Between  Education  and  the  Form  of  Gov- 
ernment. —  Education  deals  with  members  of  society,  not 
with  isolated  human  beings.  And  the  duties  of  men  mani- 
festly differ  with  the  forms  of  the  society  to  which  they 
belong.  The  duties  of  American  citizens,  for  example, 
differ  in  important  particulars  from  those  of  the  citizens 
of  Germany.  It  would,  of  course,  be  absurd  to  say  that 
the  society  of  any  highly  civilized  country  under  a  mon- 
archical form  of  government  has  anything  in  common  with 
the  caste  system.  But  the  society  of  Germany,  or  even  of 
England,  has  far  less  of  mobility  than  is  characteristic  of 
the  society  of  this  country.  The  theory  that  underlies  the 
governments  of  England  and  Germany  is  that  birth,  as 
such,  is  entitled  to  special  powers  and  privileges.  The 
theory  that  underlies  our  own  government  is  that  every 
man  has  the  right  to  make  the  most  of  himself  and  his 
life,  without  being  hampered  by  artificial  distinctions. 
Now,  a  government  based  on  the  aristocratic  theory  is 
logically  bound  to  make  different  provisions  for  the  educa- 
tion of  different  classes,  provided  it  makes  any  provision 
whatever  for  the  education  of  the  masses.  If  certain 
classes  have  an  inherent  right  to  certain  special  privileges, 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  society  of  which  they  are  members  to 
see  to  it  that  they  have  the  education  that  prepares  them 
to  make  a  right  use  of  them.     If  it  is  the  duty  of  another 

45 


46      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

class  to  be  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,  and  to 
permit  their  so-called  superiors  to  think  for  them  on  im- 
portant questions  of  government,  then  the  education  which 
would  inflate  them  with  the  notion  that  they  can  think  for 
themselves  is  an  absurdity. 

The  German  School  System.  —  It  is  indeed  true  that 
Germany  not  only  offers  education  to  all  classes  of  Ger- 
man citizens,  but  makes  a  certain  amount  of  it  compulsory. 
But  this  poUcy  of  educating  the  masses  was  entered  upon 
because  German  statesmen  and  the  members  of  the  class 
entitled  to  special  privileges  by  virtue  of  their  birth  realized 
that  this  was  the  only  means  through  which  the  governing 
powers  could  regain  the  prestige  of  which  they  had  been 
deprived  by  Napoleon,  and  the  privileged  class  its  position 
of  importance  in  the  State.  But  the  same  clearness  of 
perception  required  them  to  recognize  the  fact  that  this 
education  must  be  limited  both  in  quantity  and  quality. 
For  if  the  aristocracy  of  birth  did  not  entitle  its  possessors 
to  special  educational  advantages,  how  could  it  entitle 
them  to  special  privileges  ?  While,  therefore,  the  German 
government  does  not  erect  barriers  that  make  university 
education  impossible  to  the  lower  classes,  it  does  interpose 
obstacles  which  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  surmount.  The 
government  says  in  substance  to  its  citizens :  **  You  are 
entitled  to  the  completest  possible  development  of  your 
powers  if  you  are  members  of  a  certain  class ;  otherwise, 
to  that  amount  of  education,  and  no  more,  which  will  make 
you  useful  to  the  government."  Says  Professor  James  E. 
Russell :  "The  greatest  defect  in  the  German  school  sys- 
tem is  the  organization  which  fosters  distinctions  of  class 
and  sex.    The  common  schools  are  for  the  common  people, 


DEMOCRACY  AND  EDUCATION. 


47 


the  real-schools  are  for  the  middle  classes,  the  classical 
schools  are  for  the  aristocracy.  ...  If  class  prejudice 
did  not  exist,  one  high  school  could  easily  perform  all  the 
functions  of  secondary  education  by  the  simple  arrange- 
ment of  elective  subjects.  No  such  axiom  as  that  the 
school  exists  for  the  pupil  is  recognized  in  German  educa- 
tional philosophy.  The  German  school  exists  primarily 
for  the  state.  The  pupil  is  a  citizen  in  training.  That  he 
should  be  an  obedient,  legal,  submissive  subject  is  a  self- 
evident  truth.  Respect  for  authority  is  the  one  essential 
prerequisite  to  German  citizenship.  In  the  selection  of  a 
school  and  the  course  of  study,  in  seeking  admission  to  the 
university  and  the  vocations  of  civil  life,  the  individual  has 
little  freedom  of  choice.  The  rigorous  discipline  of  the 
schools,  which  brooks  no  opposition  and  tolerates  no  parental 
interference;  the  methods  of  instruction,  which  leave  nothing 
to  chance  and  individual  initiative ;  the  system  of  privileges, 
which  dominates  teachers  and  pupils  alike  —  all  tend  to 
the  development  of  character  which  feels  no  restriction  of 
personal  liberty  in  the  constant  surveillance  of  the  police 
and  the  rule  of  a  military  despotism.  .  .  .  German  society 
is  founded  on  the  principle  that  the  greatest  good  of  each 
is  included  in  the  greatest  good  of  all,  rather  than  on  the 
principle  that  the  greatest  good  of  all  is  subserved  by  the 
highest  individual  development  of  each."  ^ 

Professor  Peck  on  Universal  Education.  — This  is  not  said 
in  criticism  of  the  methods  of  education  of  aristocratic 
societies.  As  Plato  held  that  the  interests  of  the  masses 
would  be  best  promoted  by  absolute  submission  to  a  few 
thoroughly   trained  philosophers,  so  a   man  to-day   may 

1  Russell's  German  Higher  Schools,  pp.  420,  421. 


48      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

hold  that  the  interests  of  all  classes  will  be  best  subserved 
by  putting  special  privileges  in  the  hands  of  an  aristocracy. 
Nor  is  this  view  without  representatives  in  the  United 
States.  Says  Professor  Harry  Thurston  Peck  :  **  Linked 
closely  with  many  other  very  serious  educational  mistakes, 
and  from  many  points  of  view  by  far  the  most  profoundly 
serious  of  them  all,  is  that  curious  fancy  that  education  in 
itself  and  for  all  human  beings  is  a  good  and  thoroughly 
desirable  possession.  So  axiomatic  is  this  held  to  be  that 
its  principle  has  been  incorporated  into  the  constitutions 
of  many  of  our  States,  and  not  only  is  education  made  free 
to  all,  but  in  most  States  is  made  compulsory  upon  all. 
There  is  probably  in  our  whole  system  to-day  no  principle 
so  fundamentally  untrue  as  this,  and  there  is  certainly 
none  that  is  fraught  with  so  much  social  and  political  peril 
for  the  future.  For  education  means  ambition,  and  ambi- 
tion means  discontent.'* 

Nor  are  we  left  in  doubt  as  to  the  political  philosophy 
which  underlies  these  views  of  education.  "  It  [the 
university]  should  produce  for  the  service  of  the  State  men 
such  as  those  who  in  the  past  made  empires  and  created 
commonwealths  —  a  small  and  highly  trained  patriciate,  a 
caste,  an  aristocracy,  if  you  will.  For  every  really  great 
thing  that  has  been  accomplished  in  the  history  of  man 
has  been  accomplished  by  an  aristocracy.  It  may  have 
called  itself  a  sacerdotal  or  a  military  aristocracy,  or  an 
aristocracy  based  on  birth  and  blood,  yet  these  distinctions 
were  but  superficial ;  for  in  reality  it  always  meant  one 
thing  alone  —  the  community  of  interest  and  effort  in 
those  whose  intellectual  force  and  innate  gift  of  govern- 
ment enabled  them  to  dominate  and  control  the  destinies 
of  States,  driving  in  harness   the   hewers   of   wood  and 


DEMOCRACY  AND  EDUCATION.         49 

drawers  of  water,  who  constitute  the  vast  majority  of  the 
human  race,  and  whose  happiness  is  greater  and  whose 
welfare  is  more  thoroughly  conserved  when  governed  than 
when  governing/*  ^ 

Who  Shall  Receive  a  Thorough  Education  According  to 
Professor  Peck  ? —  But  how  are  we  to  determine  who  shall 
be  members  of  this  aristocracy  ?  Shall  we  assume  that 
the  "  children  of  the  hewers  of  wood  and  the  drawers  of 
water  "  are  fit  for  nothing  but  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of 
their  parents,  and  that  their  welfare  will  therefore  be  most 
thoroughly  conserved  by  blindly  submitting  to  the  guardi- 
anship of  their  betters  ?  Plato  saw  that  to  select  the 
class  who  were  to  rule,  and  therefore  to  receive  a  thorough 
education,  simply  on  the  basis  of  birth  would  be  a  manifest 
injury  to  society.  Believing  that  heredity  would  generally 
insure  to  the  children  of  his  philosophers  the  possession  of 
powers  that  entitled  them  to  rule,  he  admitted  that  this 
would  not  always  be  so.  He  accordingly  made  it  the  duty 
of  his  philosophers,  whom  he  endowed  with  infallible  in- 
sight and  absolute  freedom  from  class  spirit,  to  raise  to 
the  ruling  class  any  children  of  the  lower  orders  that  pos- 
sessed exceptional  abilities,  and  to  give  them  the  education 
of  the  aristocracy. 

But  the  defenders  of  aristocracy  in  our  time,  while  admit- 
ting the  injury  done  to  society  in  particular  cases  by  giving 
fecial  privileges  to  birth,  may  contend  that  there  is  no 
way  of  avoiding  it  without  inflicting  greater  injury  in  other 
directions.  There  can  be,  they  may  insist,  no  ideal  system 
either  of  government  or  of  education.  If  we  could  find  in 
any  society  philosophers  such  as  Plato  dreamed  of  —  men 
1  Cosmopolitan,  1897,  pp.  269-271. 


50  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

endowed  with  infallible  insight  and  entirely  free  from  class 
spirit  —  and  if  the  other  members  of  society  had  the  power 
of  infallibly  determining  who  the  philosophers  were  and  the 
wisdom  to  trust  themselves  to  their  guidance,  then  indeed 
we  might  have  a  Utopia  in  which  each  man  should  receive 
the  education  best  adapted  to  prepare  him  for  his  proper 
work  and  do  it.  But  none  of  these  conditions  has  ever 
existed  anywhere  save  in  Plato's  imagination.  And  in  their 
absence  no  safer  method,  none  that  inflicts  less  injury  on 
society,  it  may  be  argued,  can  be  found  than  the  one  em- 
ployed by  an  aristocracy.  That  method  assumes  that  the 
descendants  of  able  men  will  have  the  special  abilities  which 
entitled  their  ancestors  to  special  privileges,  and  that  they, 
therefore,  should  receive  the  education  befitting  the  mem- 
bers of  the  ruling  class. 

The  Relation  of  Education  to  Political  Philosophy.  —  Let 

it  be  repeated  that  the  contrasting  postulates  that  under- 
lie aristocratic  and  republican  forms  of  government  respec- 
tively have  not  been  presented  for  the  purpose  of  discuss- 
ing them.  That  would  be  a  work  of  supererogation  in  this 
country,  at  least  at  this  time.  For  though  a  considerable 
number  of  Americans  doubtless  hold  the  views  of  Professor 
Peck,  at  present  we  are  safe  in  regarding  them  as  constitut- 
ing too  small  a  minority  to  be  likely  to  influence  action. 
But  the  object  has  been  to  show  that  there  can  be  no  intel- 
ligent discussion  of  education,  especially  in  its  elementary 
forms,  unless  it  is  based  on  a  certain  political  philosophy. 
If  the  German  political  philosophy  is  true,  then  the  Ger- 
man educational  practice  which  discourages  spontaneity  in 
its  elementary  schools  is  wise.  But  if  our  American  polit- 
ical philosophy  is  true,  if  that  form  of  society  is  best  in 


DEMOCRACY  AND  EDUCATION. 


51 


which  there  is  no  discrimination  between  man  and  man,  if 
men  as  such  have  an  inherent  right,  if  not  to  equahty  of 
opportunity,  at  least  to  freedom  from  artificial  inequalities, 
then  the  thing  to  do  is  to  work  out  an  American  theory  of 
education  based  on  the  assumption  that  every  member  of 
society,  without  regard  to  birth,  race,  or  sex,  should  receive 
that  development  of  his  or  her  powers  which  makes  life 
most  worth  the  living. 

The  Philosophy  of  Education  Should  Assume  the  Truth 
of  the  Republican  Theory — But  without  attemptmg  to 
discuss  the  abstract  principles  underlying  the  poUtical 
philosophies  of  republican  and  aristocratic  forms  of  govern- 
ment, it  may  not  be  amiss  to  point  out  that  there  are  con- 
siderations of  the  most  cogent  character  which  justify  us 
in  assuming,  at  least  from  the  standpoint  of  education,  the 
truth  of  the  republican  theory.  Let  us  grant,  for  the  sake 
of  argument,  that  the  cultured  and  intelligent  few  alone 
have  the  "  right "  to  rule,  that  the  interests  of  all  parties 
would  be  best  subserved  by  restricting  all  power  to  them. 
There  is  no  way  of  preventing  the  real  or  supposed  inter- 
ests of  one  group  of  rulers  from  clashing  with  those  of 
another.  It  is  this  conflict  of  interests  between  the  dom- 
inant elements  of  one  "nation  "  — which  always  practically 
means  the  rulers  of  a  country  —  that  has  given  rise  to  nine 
tenths  of  the  wars  of  history.  Now  in  war  the  immediate 
object  —  not  ulterior  and  remote  consequences  —  is  bound 
to  monopolize  attention,  and  the  immediate  object  is  always 
victory.  But  the  achievement  of  this  object  depends  not 
merely  on  the  quantity  but  on  the  quality  of  the  force  that 
is  hurled  against  the  adversary ;  not  merely  on  the  number 
of  soldiers  but  on  their  character,  training,  and  intelligence. 


5!2  A    BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

In  this  way  the  elevation  of  the  intelligence  of  the  gov- 
erned may  become  a  matter  of  importance  to  rulers.  Re- 
garding the  masses  as  mere  means  to  the  attainment  of 
their  own  ends,  looking  upon  themselves  as  the  only  crea- 
tures having  an  intrinsic  right  to  consideration  in  the 
world,  the  few  are  Hkely,  in  the  course  of  time,  to  be  con- 
fronted with  conditions  which  make  it  essential  in  the  fur- 
therance of  their  objects  to  improve  the  quality  of  their 
tools. 

The  Effect  of  Education  on  the  Masses.  —  But  the  hu- 
man tool  protests  against  being  treated  as  a  tool  as  soon 
as  you  begin  to  educate  him.  Perhaps  he  ought  not  to 
protest ;  perhaps  the  well-being  of  society  requires  that  he 
should  look  upon  himself  as  having  but  one  purpose  in  cre- 
ation, the  hewing  of  wood  and  the  drawing  of  water  for  his 
masters.  Perhaps  the  widening  of  his  own  horizon,  the 
illumination  of  his  own  mind,  the  enlargement  of  his  own 
sympathies,  the  purifying  of  his  own  affections,  the  deepen- 
ing and  quickening  of  his  own  sense  of  duty  and  of  beauty, 
the  improvement  of  the  conditions  of  his  own  life,  are 
really  matters  of  no  consequence  in  the  scheme  of  life.  Be 
it  so ;  the  significant  thing  is,  the  moment  you  begin  to 
educate  him,  the  moment  you  begin  to  increase  his  value 
for  your  purposes,  that  moment  you  implant  in  his  mind 
the  germ  of  the  belief  that  from  his  point  of  view  they  are 
supremely  important  matters,  and  the  more  you  educate 
him  the  more  quickly  you  will  cause  that  germ  to  de- 
velop. 

The  Dilemma  of  Rulers.  —  This,  then,  is  the  dilemma  of 
rulers :  they  must  choose  between  the  poor  service  of  con- 


DEMOCRACY   AND   EDUCATION.  ^3 

tented  but  brutish  workers  and  the  far  more  effective  but 
discontented  service  of  intelHgent  men.  The  nearer  the 
masses  approach  to  the  level  of  brutes,  the  more  their 
aspirations  are  stifled,  the  more  destitute  they  are  of  am- 
bition, the  more  contented  and  at  the  same  time  the  less 
useful  they  are.  Professor  Peck  is  right :  universal  educa- 
tion means  universal  discontent.  But  he  did  not  add  that 
universal  ignorance  means  universal  incapacity.  Contented 
ineffectiveness,  discontented  effectiveness  —  between  these 
rulers  must  choose. 

For  reasons  already  mentioned,  the  choice  is  likely  in 
the  course  of  time  to  be  discontented  efficiency.  Disre- 
garding remote  consequences,  rulers  are  likely,  sooner  or 
later,  to  be  confronted  with  conditions  which  make  the 
accomplishment  of  their  own  purposes  dependent  on  the 
elevation  and  education  of  their  subjects.  And  this  is  one 
of  the  causes  that  tends  to  bring  about  democracy.  (By 
this  term  I  mean  a  society  founded  on  the  principle  that 
"  the  greatest  good  of  all  is  subserved  by  the  highest  indi- 
vidual development  of  each/')  For  when  the  discontent 
that  education  engenders  takes  possession  of  the  masses, 
they  begin  to  employ  their  own  energies  for  a  new  purpose 
—  the  promotion  of  their  own  welfare.  The  tradition  of 
uncounted  centuries,  that  they  are  mere  cogs  in  the  social 
machine  whose  one  function  it  is  to  grind  out  the  interests 
of  the  nobility,  no  longer  binds,  and  they  begin  to  wonder 
whether  the  sun  does  not  shine  and  the  flowers  bloom  and 
the  brooks  murmur  for  them.  The  history  of  every  pro- 
gressive people  in  the  world  is  an  illustration  of  this ;  and 
the  stationary  peoples,  whatever  else  they  may  be,  are 
those  whose  rulers  have  not  yet  found  it  to  their  interest 
to  educate  the  masses. 


54 


A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 


Three  Causes  That  Work  Towards  Democracy We  find, 

then,  in  the  selfishness  of  the  ruling  classes,  and  in  the 
discontent  of  the  subject  classes,  two  causes  that  work  in 
the  direction  of  democracy.  But  there  is  in  the  unselfish- 
ness of  the  ruling  class  a  cause  that  works  in  the  same 
direction.  Unselfishness  is  as  fundamental,  if  not  as  pow- 
erful, a  characteristic  of  human  nature  as  is  its  opposite. 
That  it  does  not  manifest  itself  more  effectively,  that  it 
does  not  exert  a  more  powerful  influence  in  bringing  on 
democracy,  is  due  to  the  greater  influence  exerted  by  self- 
ishness upon  men's  beliefs.  We  always  incline  to  believe 
what  we  wish  to  believe,  and  our  selfishness  makes  us  wish 
to  believe  that  the  sufferings  and  deprivations  and  con- 
tracted lives  of  the  poor  are  part  of  the  inevitable  order  of 
things,  not  the  result  of  man's  own  work ;  and  we  wish  to 
believe  this  because,  if  the  sufferings  of  the  poor  are  inevi- 
table, we  can  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  pity  as  we  contem- 
plate them,  without  feeling  under  obligation  to  do  anything 
about  it.  This  explains  why  it  happened  that  the  unself- 
ishness of  the  North  had  more  to  do  with  effecting  the 
overthrow  of  slavery  than  had  the  unselfishness  of  the 
South.  Not  that  the  unselfishness  of  the  North  was  the 
only,  perhaps  not  even  the  chief,  factor  in  bringing  about 
the  result.  One  need  not  read  far  in  the  history  of  the 
antislavery  struggle  to  become  aware  of  the  fact  that  oppo- 
sition to  slavery  was  due  to  both  the  selfishness  and  the 
unselfishness  of  its  opponents.  The  desire  of  the  North 
for  political  power  combined  with  its  pity  for  the  slave  to 
free  him.    That  the  unselfishness  of  the  South  ^  in  reference 

The  existence  of  a  strong  antislavery  sentiment  in  the  South  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  in  1827  one  hundred  and  six  of  the  one  hundred 
and  thirty  antislavery  societies  in  the  United  States  outside  of  Illinois  were 


DEMOCRACY  AND  EDUCATION. 


55 


to  slavery  had  so  few  visible  results  was  by  no  means  due 
to  its  absence,  but  to  the  fact  that  it  had  no  support  from 
the  selfishness  of  Southern  men. 

Now  this  philanthropic  sentiment  is  another  of  the  forces 
tending  towards  democracy  that  must  be  reckoned  with. 
By  itself  so  weak  that  history  might  safely  neglect  it, 
in  conjunction  with  the  forces  already  mentioned  it  may 
turn  the  scale  in  favor  of  results  of  world-wide  importance. 
With  one  group  of  the  ruling  class  seeking  to  improve  the 
condition  of  the  masses  for  its  own  selfish  purposes,  with 
the  masses  bent  on  having  their  own  welfare  treated  as  an 
end  in  itself,  it  ought  not  to  be  a  matter  of  wonder  if  the 
members  of  the  ruling  class,  whose  humanitarianism  is  so 
intense  as  to  cause  them  to  forsake  the  standpoint  of  their 
class,  should  make  an  effective  alliance  with  the  masses 
in  bringing  about  progress  towards  democracy. 

Progress  of  the  World  Towards  Democracy,  —  This 
rough  sketch  may  perhaps  throw  some  light  on  the  fact 
which  De  Tocqueville  so  long  ago  noted  :  the  steady  march 
of  the  world  towards  democracy.  The  peoples  of  the 
world  may  be  divided  into  two  classes  —  those  that  are 
stationary  and  those  that  are  moving  towards  democracy. 
Whether  that  ought  to  be  the  trend  of  progress,  let  it  be 
repeated,  is  not  the  question.  Perhaps  there  is  but  one 
stable  condition  of  society  —  the  stability  of  fossilization, 
such  as  China  has  shown  to  the  world  since  the  dawn  of 
history.  But  if  there  are  two,  the  other  is  democracy.  If 
a  living,  growing,  progressive  society  has  any  stable  form, 
it  is  that  which  treats  every  man  as  an  end  in  himself,  as 

in  slaveholding  States.  For  a  fuller  discussion  of  this  subject  see  the 
author*s  "  Political  History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol  II.  pp.  406,  407, 


56  A   BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

having  an  inalienable  right  to  develop  himself  and  pursue 
happiness  without  being  hampered  by  artificial  encum- 
brances. Whether  such  a  form  can  be  stable  depends  on 
the  natural  capacity  of  the  average  man  and  on  his  educa- 
tion.    What  his  natural  capacity  is  time  alone  can  tell. 

The  philosophy  of  education  is  bound,  therefore,  to 
say  to  such  bodies  politic  as  that  of  Germany:  "You 
have  no  foundation  in  the  nature  of  things.  You  are 
neither  frankly  feudal  nor  frankly  democratic.  You  do 
not,  like  China,  seek  to  suppress  three  fourths  of  the  man ; 
nor  do  you,  Hke  the  United  States,  seek  to  develop  the 
whole  man  —  unless  he  belongs  to  certain  classes.  But 
between  these  types  you  must  choose,  since,  from  the 
nature  of  the  case,  no  other  can  be  permanent." 

QUESTIONS  ON  THE  TEXT. 

1.  Illustrate  by  means  of  the  German  school  system  the  connec- 
tion between  education  and  the  form  of  government. 

2.  Why  is  Professor  Peck  opposed  to  universal  education  ? 

3.  Who,  in  his  opinion,  should  receive  an  education? 

4.  What  is  the  inevitable  effect  of  education  on  the  masses? 

5.  What  does  the  text  mean  by  the  dilemma  of  rulers  ? 

6.  What  are  the  three  causes  that  work  towards  democracy? 

7.  What  are  the  two  main  conclusions  of  this  chapter  and  on  what 
arguments  do  they  depend  ? 

SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS. 

1.  Which  do  you  consider  the  more  desirable  state  for  a  human 
being,  content  or  discontent? 

2.  Show  that  opponents  of  universal  education  ought  logically  to 
oppose  republican  government. 

3.  What  is  the  difference  between  regarding  man  as  a  tool  and 
thinking  of  him  as  an  end  in  himself  ? 

4.  Can  you  cite  any  examples  from  history  that  illustrate  what  the 
text  calls  the  "  dilemma  of  riders  "  ? 


DEMOCRACY  AND  EDUCATION. 


57 


5.  State  the  history  of  popular  suffrage  in  this  country,  and  point 
out  its  bearing  on  the  argument. 

6.  What  is  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  and  why  was  it  passed  ? 

7.  The  text  says  that  the  philosophy  of  education  must  choose 
between  the  fossilization  of  China,  and  the  progressiveness  of  the 
United  States ;  do  you  clearly  see  why? 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  END  OF  EDUCATION  AS  CONCEIVED  BY  THE 
REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  FIFTEEN. 

All  intelligent  action  presupposes  a  conception  of  the 
end  to  be  attained.  What  end  does  education  seek  to 
realize  ? 

The  End  of  Education  and  Civilization.  —  A  high  author- 
ity intimates  that  the  question  is  sufficiently  answered  by 
the  demands  of  civilization.  "  The  chief  consideration," 
says  th6  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen,  "to  which 
all  others  are  to  be  subordinated  is  this  requirement  of 
the  civilization  into  which  the  child  is  born,  as  determining 
not  only  what  he  shall  study  in  school,  but  what  habits 
and  customs  he  shall  be  taught  in  the  family  before  the 
school  age  arrives  ;  as  well  as  that  he  shall  acquire  a  skilled 
acquaintance  with  some  one  of  a  definite  series  of  trades, 
professions,  or  vocations  in  the  years  that  follow  school ; 
and  furthermore,  that  this  question  of  the  relation  of  the 
pupil  to  his  civilization  determines  what  political  duties  he 
shall  assume  and  what  religious  faith  or  spiritual  aspirations 
shall  be  adopted  for  the  conduct  of  his  life.* 

If  this  reasoning  is  good  from  the  point  of  view  of  an 
American,  it  is  equally  good  from  that  of  a  Chinaman. 
The  education  required  by  the  civilization  of  the  United 
States  lays  emphasis  on  reflection,  on  emancipation  from 
tradition;   the  education   required   by  the   civilization   of 

1  L.  c,  p.  41, 

58 


THE  END  OF  EDUCATION. 


59 


China  emphasizes  the  supreme  importance  of  adherence  to 
ancient  beliefs  and  customs.  Ought  education  in  the  one 
country  differ  as  widely  from  that  in  the  other  as  do  their 
respective  civilizations  ?  Should  education  take  no  ac- 
count of  the  fundamental  truths  upon  which  each  bases  its 
civilization  ? 

The  civilization  of  Greece  had  as  its  root  the  inequality 
of  man,  the  fundamental  difference  between  Greek  and 
barbarian.  Our  civilization  is  based  upon  the  principle  of 
the  equality  of  man  before  the  law.  Ought  the  ancient 
Greeks  to  have  been  taught  that  it  was  right  to  make 
slaves  of  the  barbarians  ?  Ought  they  to  have  neglected 
the  education  of  their  women  ? 

The  civilization  of  the  South  before  the  Civil  War  was 
based  on  the  assumption  that  the  nature  of  the  negro  was 
such  that  his  own  interest,  as  well  as  that  of  society  in 
general,  required  that  he  should  be  held  as  a  slave ;  must 
the  philosophy  of  education  hold  that  it  was  wise  for 
Southern  parents  to  teach  this  doctrine  to  their  children  ? 

There  is,  indeed,  another  construction  which  may  be 
given  to  the  paragraph  quoted  from  the  Report  of  thie 
Committee  of  Fifteen.  It  may  mean  to  say  that  a  man 
must  accept  the  fundamental  ideas  of  the  civilization  in 
which  he  is  born,  however  widely  they  may  depart  from 
the  truth,  as  the  condition  of  helpful  co-operation  with  his 
fellows.  And  since  education  means  to  prepare  him  for 
such  co-operation,  it  must  inculcate  in  him  the  beliefs 
without  which  helpful  work  is  impossible.  But  this  put- 
ting of  the  case  begs  the  question.  What  is  helpful 
co-operation  ?  Is  it  to  conform  in  all  important  particu- 
lars to  the  beliefs  and  practices  insisted  upon  by  public 
opinion  ?      So  thought  the  ancient  Athenians,   who  put 


6o      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

Socrates  to  death  because  he  did  not  co-operate  with  them 
in  what  they  regarded  as  a  helpful  way.  In  common  with 
every  other  man  who  has  dared  to  lay  a  sacrilegious  hand 
on  the  customs  and  traditions  of  his  community  he  met 
with  violent  opposition.  But  was  it  Aristophanes,  the 
conformist,  or  Socrates,  the  nonconformist,  who  was  most 
helpful  to  his  fellows  ?  What  is  it  China  needs  to-day  so 
much  as  thinkers  who  can  arouse  the  Chinese  from 
the  sleep  of  tradition  and  open  their  minds  to  truth  ? 
Surely  it  must  be  granted  that  that  man  confers  the 
greatest  benefits  on  his  fellows  who  does  most  to  influence 
them  to  live  a  rational  life. 

Must  Education  Conform  to  the  Principles  of  a  Given 
Civilization  ?  —  It  may  indeed  be  said  that  a  system  of 
education  which  is  fundamentally  at  variance  with  the 
principles  of  a  given  civilization  would  not  be  tolerated 
within  the  sphere  of  that  civilization.  We  know  what 
would  happen  to  an  American  who  should  teach  his  pupils 
that  the  only  way  in  which  tney  could  make  the  most  of 
Hfe  was  by  following  the  teaching  of  Confucius. 

If  it  were  entirely  true  that  an  education  at  variance 
with  the  principles  of  a  given  civilization  must  be  futile,  it 
is  surely  one  thing  for  the  philosophy  of  education  to 
recognize  that  its  protest  against  irrational  methods  and 
practices  which  are  sanctioned  by  tradition  and  in  harmony 
with  civilization  must  be  futile,  and  quite  another  for  it  to 
become  the  mere  mouthpiece  of  civilization  and  of  the 
traditions  that  underlie  it. 

But  it  is  not  wholly  true.  Reason  is  the  only  weapon 
with  which  the  mind  can  combat  error.  If  it  is  true  that 
society  will  not  permit  to  be  taught  in  its  schools  ideas 


THE   END   OF   EDUCATION.  6l 

entirely  out  of  harmony  with  its  civilization,  it  is  equally 
true  that  it  is  possible  to  modify  the  school  by  modifying 
the  character  of  the  civilization  upon  which  it  is  based. 
"  A  minority  of  one  with  truth  on  its  side  is  an  eventual 
majority/'  If  truth  is  on  one  side  and  civilization  on  the 
other,  he  who  sees  what  he  believes  to  be  the  truth  should 
teach  it  in  the  sure  faith  that  the  world  will  come  his  way 
in  the  course  of  time. 

But,  on  second  thought,  it  is  evident  that  this  may  be 
conceived  too  abstractly.  It  is  indeed  true  that  ^  the 
progress  of  society  is  conditioned  upon  the  fact  that  there 
are  individuals  in  it  who  rise  above  their  environment. 
It  is  thus  that  the  development,  step  by  step,  of  the  human 
race  from  its  primitive  state  in  prehistoric  time  to  civiliza- 
tion has  been  brought  about.  The  various  arts  and  inven- 
tions which,  on  the  material  side,  serve  to  register  this 
progress  are  illustrations  of  this  truth.  Every  one  of  them 
is  the  development  of  an  idea  first  existent  in  the  mind  of 
an  individual. 

But  to  say  that  the  progress  of  society  depends  upon 
individuals  is  to  state  only  half  the  truth.  Unless  the 
community  which  constitutes  the  social  environment  of 
the  individual  approves  of  his  new  ideas,  unless  it  adopts 
them,  so  to  speak,  they  are  without  significance  for  it. 

As  Professor  Baldwin  says,^  "  The  problem  of  the  inven- 
tion itself,  considered  as  a  factor  in  human  progress,  is 
quite  different  from  the  problem  of  the  inventor,  con- 
sidered as  a  man.  The  invention  cannot  be  an  element  in 
human  progress  unless  it  enter  into  the  network  of  social 
relationships  in  some  way.     If  it  do  not,  it  may  be  a  thing 

1  Baldwin*s  Mental  Development :  Ethical  and  Social  Interpretations, 
p.  172, 

OF  TKE     "* 

UNIVERSITY 


62  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

of  great  ingenuity  and  originality,  but  that  only  makes  it  a 
part  of  the  problem  of  the  origin  of  the  man.  It  then 
loses  its  interest  as  a  thing  of  social  value." 

The  Educational  Statesman.  —  This  is  only  saying  that 
the  position  of  the  educational  statesman  differs  widely 
from  that  of  the  educational  philosopher.  While  the  latter 
endeavors  to  ascertain  the  end  which  imder  ideal  circum- 
stances education  should  seek  to  realize,  and  the  methods 
which  should  be  employed  under  ideal  conditions  in  attain- 
ing it,  the  former  tries  to  make  the  best  possible  compro- 
mise between  truth  and  the  assumptions  underlying  the 
civilization  with  which  he  is  dealing.  It  is  his  duty  to 
incorporate  into  the  school  as  much  of  truth  as  society  will 
tolerate.  To  act  the  part  of  a  mere  doctrinaire,  to  dis- 
regard public  opinion  and  flout  prevalent  prejudices,  would 
be  to  forget  that  social  progress  depends  not  merely  on 
the  propagation  of  new  and  fruitful  ideas,  but  upon  their 
entertainment  and  endorsement  by  society.  The  blunder 
of  the  doctrinaire  is  indeed  much  more  serious  than  this. 
The  man  who  seeks  to  force  on  society  ideas  for  which  it 
is  not  ready,  which  do  such  violence  to  its  conservative 
instincts  as  to  make  acceptance  of  those  ideas  impossible 
—  even  if  they  are  true — succeeds  only  in  earning  for  him- 
self the  reputation  of  a  "  crank.'* 

And  this  is  the  point  of  view  from  which  the  Report  of 
the  Committee  of  Fifteen  should  be  judged.  It  discussed 
the  question  of  educational  values  and  courses  of  study  for 
American  schools.  From  such  a  standpoint,  the  character 
of  American  civilization,  American  government,  American 
religious  opinions  must  not  be  lost  sight  of.  But  if  the 
educational  statesman  is  to  make  the  best  terms  he  can  for 


THE   END   OF   EDUCATION.  63 

educational  philosophy,  if  he  is  to  get  all  the  truth  in  rela- 
tion to  education  which  society  will  tolerate  into  the  school, 
he  must  know  what  the  truth  is.  If,  in  a  word,  while  so 
far  adapting  his  courses  of  study  and  methods  of  instruction 
to  the  civilization  of  his  country  as  to  keep  them  in  a  gen- 
eral way  in  harmony  with  it,  he  is  nevertheless  not  to  lose 
sight  of  the  ideals  which  he  should  seek  to  realize  and  of 
the  methods  which  he  should  employ  were  society  to  give 
him  a  free  hand,  he  must  know  what  these  ideals  and 
methods  are,  he  must  know  the  ideals  which  the  school 
should  seek  to  realize  if  it  had  regard  only  to  the  interests 
of  the  growing  human  mind,  and  he  must  know  what 
methods  should  be  employed  in  attaining  them.  We  are 
bound,  then,  to  try  to  determine  the  end  which  education 
under  ideal  circumstances  should  seek  to  realize. 

QUESTIONS   ON   THE   TEXT. 

1.  State  and  criticise  the  end  of  education  as  conceived  by  the 
Committee  of  Fifteen. 

2.  What  is  the  comparison  between  Socrates  and   Aristophanes 
intended  to  show  ? 

3.  Why  will  a  minority  of  one  with  truth  on  his  side  be  an  event- 
ual majority  ? 

4.  Illustrate   at  length    the  difference  between    the   educational 
statesman  and  the  educational  philosopher. 

5.  What  does  Professor  Baldwin  mean  by  the  difference  between 
the  problem  of  the  invention  and  that  of  the  inventor? 

6.  From  what  standpoint  may  the  Report  be  defended  ? 

7.  Why  cannot  a  man  be  an  educational  statesman  without  being 
an  educational  philosopher  ? 


SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS 

hy  is  it  d 
)  you  th 
subject  ? 


Why  is  it  desirable  to  consider  the  end  of  education  at  all  ? 
Do  you  think   that  most  teachers  have  clear  ideas  on   this 


64  A   BROADER  ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

3.  What  would  happen  if  a  man  should  seek  to  build  a  house 
without  deciding  what  sort  of  a  house  he  would  build  ? 

4.  Do  you  think  that  results  of  the  same  sort  are  the  consequence 
of  attempting  to  teach  without  having  clear  ideas  of  what  we  wish  to 
accomplish  ? 

5.  Who  wrote  the  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen  ? 

6.  Give  examples  from  your  own  observation  to  show  the  necessity 
of  educational  statesmanship. 

7.  How  did  the  superintendent  of  schools  in  the  neighboring  town 
decide  upon  a  course  of  study  ? 

8.  Can  there  be  any  intelligent  consideration  of  such  a  question 
that  is  not  based  on  a  clear  perception  of  the  end  of  education  ? 

9.  What  is  meant  by  educational  values  ? 

10.  Can  you  determine  the  educational  value  of  a  subject  if  you 
have  not  determined  the  end  of  education  ? 

11.  What  is  a  good  school  ? 

12.  Can  you  answer  that  question  if  you  do  not  know  what  the  end 
of  education  is  ? 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   END   OF   EDUCATION   AS   CONCEIVED   BY 
MR.  HERBERT  SPENCER  AND  DR.  DEWEY. 

Education  Preparation  for  Rational  Living.  —  The  end 
of  education  may  be  provisionally  stated  as  preparation  for 
rational  living.  This  statement  ought  to  be  acceptable  to 
all  parties.  For  whatever  the  ends  you  have  in  view,  you 
cannot  reach  them  without  the  employment  of  reason.  If 
you  say  with  Plato  that  the  nature  of  the  vast  majority  of 
men  makes  it  their  duty  to  submit  absolutely  to  the  guid- 
ance and  direction  of  a  few  highly  trained  minds,  then 
such  submission  is  rational,  and  the  education  that  deter- 
mines who  the  highly  gifted  few  are  and  that  disposes 
the  many  to  submit  to  the  few  is  preparation  for  rational 
living.  If  with  Aristotle  you  hold  that  the  incapacity  of 
the  majority  makes  it  their  duty  either  to  be  slaves  of 
individuals  or  the  servants  of  a  community,  then  submission 
to  such  service  is  the  rational  thing  for  those  who  ought  to 
submit  to  it.  If  with  the  same  philosopher  you  maintain 
that  contemplation,  thought,  reflection,  is  the  highest  thing 
in  life,  then  you  will  hold  that  the  training  for  this  activ- 
ity of  those  who  are  qualified  for  it  is  training  which  pre- 
pares for  rational  living.  If  with  the  Stoics  you  believe 
that  the  wise  man  is  he  who  concentrates  his  attention 
upon  himself,  on  his  own  moral  development,  then  you  will 
believe  that  a  life  in  harmony  with  this  conception  is  a 
rational  life.     If  with  Epicurus  you  contend  that  individual 

65 


66      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

happiness  is  the  true  end  of  life,  then  you  will  contend 
that  rational  living  is  living  intelligently  devoted  to  its 
realization. 

If,  with  what  seems  to  be  the  public  opinion  of  our  time, 
you  hold  that  he  succeeds  best  who  accumulates  most 
wealth,  then  you  will  hold  that  the  education  that  best 
prepares  men  to  make  money  is  preparation  for  rational 
living.  If  with  some  society  people  you  believe  that 
"cutting  a  dash"  —  giving  the  finest  dinners  and  the 
smartest  receptions,  wearing  the  costliest  diamonds  and 
the  handsomest  gowns  —  is  the  most  desirable  thing  in  the 
world,  then  you  will  beUeve  that  the  education  that  makes 
this  possible  is  preparation  for  rational  living. 

But  if  people  of  the  most  widely  divergent  ideas  of  edu- 
cation can  agree  in  regarding  it  as  preparation  for  rational 
living,  it  is  evident  that  such  a  description  has  no  value  for 
science.  Granting  that  the  thing  to  do  is  to  live  a  rational 
life,  and  the  proper  education  that  which  prepares  us  for 
it,  the  question  at  once  arises :  What  ends  shall  rational 
living  seek  to  realize,  and  what  is  the  education  that  will 
enable  us  to  do  it  ? 

Mr.  Spencer's  Description  of  Complete  Living.  —  Her- 
bert Spencer  has  attempted  to  answer  these  questions  in 
language  which  seems  at  first  sight  transparently  clear. 
Education,  he  says,  is  preparation  for  complete  living,  and 
complete  living  consists  in  dealing  wisely  with  one's  mind 
and  body,  in  training  one's  children  and  earning  a  liveli- 
hood intelligently,  in  performing  one's  duty  to  his  family 
and  society,  and  in  making  a  wise  use  of  one's  leisure  time. 
Now,  satisfactory  as  this  may  seem  to  the  casual  reader,  it 
really  hides  a  host  of   difficulties.     In  the  first  place,  a 


THE   END   OF   EDUCATION.  67 

number  of  the  constituents  of  complete  living,  to  use  Mr. 
Spencer's  phrase,  mean  absolutely  nothing  until  we  know 
the  very  thing  which  they  profess  to  tell  us.  The  end  of 
education  is  complete  living,  we  are  told,  and  one  of  the 
things  we  must  do  in  order  to  live  completely  is  to  train  our 
children  wisely.  But  how  can  you  train  your  children 
wisely  unless  you  have  a  true  ideal  of  life,  a  true  concep- 
tion of  that  which  really  makes  it  worth  the  living  ?  Do 
you  think  that  intelligent  selfishness  is  the  only  wise  thing 
in  life.?  Then  you  will  train  your  children  wisely,  from 
your  point  of  view,  when  you  have  done  all  you  can  to  dis- 
courage any  altruistic  "nonsense."  If  you  think  that  the 
making  of  money  is  the  fundamental  matter,  then  you  will 
regard  the  training  which  disposes  them  to  make  every- 
thing subordinate  to  it  and  employ  successful  means  in  ac- 
quiring it  as  the  wisest  possible  training.  In  order  to  live 
completely,  also,  we  must  earn  a  livelihood.  But  by  what 
principles  are  we  to  be  guided  in  doing  it  ?  Shall  we  adopt 
the  code  of  many  business  men  and  say  that  any  method 
is  good  which  accomplishes  its  purpose  and  enables  us  to 
avoid  the  clutches  of  the  law  ?  Shall  we  in  earning  a  live- 
lihood seek  to  concentrate  our  attention  on  the  service  we 
are  trying  to  render  to  society,  or  shall  we  regard  our  busi- 
ness as  a  sort  of  economic  prize-fight  in  which  our  duty  to 
ourselves  obliges  us  to  knock  out  our  competitors  without 
regard  to  the  consequences  to  themselves  and  their  families  ? 
I  must  also  perform  my  duty  as  a  citizen  in  order  to  live 
completely.  But  that,  again,  is  a  phrase  that  does  not 
mean  very  much  until  one  knows  what  his  duty  to  his  coun- 
try requires.  Shall  I  say,  "  My  country  right  or  wrong  "  ? 
And  if  you  tell  me  that  I  am  only  to  uphold  my  country 
when  it  is  right,  that  an  important  part  of  my  duty  as  a 


68      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

citizen  consists  in  the  supervision  of  my  country's  conduct 
so  that  I  may  by  my  vote  call  to  account  those  who  are  re- 
sponsible when  it  goes  astray,  I  need  to  know  the  standard 
which  you  would  have  me  apply  when  I  am  dealing  with 
my  country.  Is  the  golden  rule  for  individuals,  not  for 
nations  ?  Is  it  right  to  bully  a  weak  nation  like  Mexico, 
and  goad  it  to  war,  if  the  weaker  nation  has  a  lower  civili- 
zation than  the  stronger,  and  if  the  result  of  the  war  will 
enable  the  powerful  nation  to  enforce  its  civilization  on  a 
part  of  the  territory  of  the  weak  one  ?  Is  it  the  duty  of 
civilized  nations  to  extend  their  civilization  over  less  civil- 
ized countries,  even  at  the  cost  of  war,  as  Aristotle  con- 
tended that  it  might  be  their  duty  to  go  to  war  in  order  to 
compel  the  citizens  of  less  civilized  countries  to  occupy 
their  proper  positions  as  slaves  }  Is  it  the  first  duty  of  a 
man  in  office  to  promote  the  interests  of  himself,  then  of 
his  personal  friends,  then  of  his  party,  then  of  his  State, 
then  of  his  section,  and  last  of  all,  if  he  has  any  energy 
left  over,  of  his  country  as  a  whole  ? 

Conflict  of  Duties.  —  Let  us  waive  these  difficulties,  let 
us  suppose  that  we  know  what  principles  should  guide  us 
in  training  our  children  and  earning  a  livelihood,  and  in 
our  work  as  citizens;  there  yet  remain  other  questions 
which  must  be  answered  before  one  is  in  a  position  to  live 
his  life  according  to  knowledge.  I  am  not  earning  a  liveli- 
hood when  I  am  training  my  children,  nor  am  I,  except  in 
an  indirect  way,  performing  my  duty  as  a  citizen.  When 
these  duties  conflict,  by  what  principle  am  I  guided? 
Manifestly  this  question  cannot  be  answered  precisely. 
We  feel  that  the  street-car  conductor  who  was  obliged  to 
work  such  lon^  hours  that  his  children  scarcely  knew  him 


THE   END   OF   EDUCATION.  69 

acted  wisely  if  that  was  the  only  occupation  in  which  he 
could  earn  a  livelihood.  But  a  lawyer  who  neglects  his 
family  in  order  to  employ  all  his  waking  hours  in  swelling 
an  already  sufficient  income  deserves  our  censure.  The 
mother  who  should  neglect  the  training  of  her  children  in 
order  to  devote  herself  to  missionary  work  would  blunder 
seriously  if  not  criminally.  But  it  is  equally  certain  that 
the  emergencies  can  rarely  arise  which  would  justify  us  in 
the  complete  neglect  of  all  civic  and  social  obligations. 

Nevertheless,  however  sure  we  may  be  in  extreme  cases, 
there  are  numerous  instances  on  the  border  line  when  the 
most  thoughtful  person  must  be  in  doubt.  A  pronounced 
blue  and  a  pronounced  green  are  very  easily  distinguished, 
but  who  shall  say  at  what  point  in  the  spectrum  blue  be- 
comes green,  or  green  blue  ?  In  like  manner,  it  is  clear 
that  a  father  should  devote  a  certain  amount  of  attention 
to  the  training  of  j  his  children,  and  some  time  to  his  duties 
as  a  citizen;  but  who  can  say  how  much  time  he  shall 
give  to  each,  or  when  the  one  duty  becomes  so  urgent  that 
the  other  must  give  way  to  it  ?  Perhaps  Socrates  was 
right  in  neglecting  his  family  for  the  sake  of  his  fellow 
citizens,  but  we  feel  that  nothing  short  of  the  genius  of 
Socrates  would  justify  such  a  course. 

The  Development  of  Character  as  the  End  of  Education. 
. —  Dr.  Dewey  says  that  the  end  of  education  is  the  devel- 
opment of  character,  and  by  character  he  means  a  percep- 
tion of  the  interests  of  society,  and  the  power  and  disposi- 
tion to  promote  them.  Whoever  sees  the  true  interests  of 
society  and  has  the  power  and  disposition  to  promote 
them,  he  and  he  alone,  says  Dr,  Dewey,  deserves  to  be 
called  educated, 


yo      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

Now  in  criticising  this  definition  I  do  not  wish  to  be  un- 
derstood as  disagreeing  with  it.  On  the  contrary,  I  wish 
at  the  outset  to  say  that  I  regard  it  as  asserting  by  impH- 
cation  a  very  important  truth  :  that  the  true  interest  of  the 
individual  and  that  of  society  are  identical.  My  criticism 
of  the  definition  is  that  it  does  not  tell  us  in  what  the  in- 
terests either  of  the  individual  or  of  society  are  to  be 
found.  To  be  told  that  the  interests  of  the  individual  are 
the  same  as  those  of  society  tells  me  nothing  unless  I 
know  what  the  interests  of  society  are.  To  be  told  tha^ 
the  interests  of  society  are  the  same  as  those  of  the  indi- 
vidual leaves  me  entirely  in  the  dark  unless  I  know  what 
the  interests  of  the  individual  are.  The  teacher  has  to 
deal  with  a  lot  of  psychological  raw  material,  and  he 
wishes  to  know  what  he  shall  try  to  make  of  it,  toward 
what  ideal  he  shall  seek  to  have  it  shape  itself.  Is  it  not 
evident  that  the  one  thing  that  he  needs  to  know  is  in 
what  the  true  interests  of  the  individual  lie  ?  And  is  it 
not  equally  clear  that  you  are  giving  him  no  positive  con- 
ception when  you  tell  him  that  the  interests  of  the  indi- 
vidual consist  in  such  a  development  of  his  powers  as  will 
enable  him  to  see  and  respond  to  the  interests  of  society  ? 
I  say,  no  positive  conception ;  there  is  a  negative  idea  of 
very  great  value  in  Dr.  Dewey's  definition.  He  says  that 
the  material,  selfish  view  of  education  is  not  the  true  one : 
so  far  it  is  good.  But  when  we  ask  for  a  positive  state- 
ment of  the  end  of  education,  his  definition  gives  us  noth- 
ing but  words.  It  tells  us  that  it  consists  in  such  a  train- 
ing of  the  individual  as  will  promote  the  interests  of 
society.  But  it  does  not  tell  us  in  what  the  interests 
either  of  the  individual  or  of  society  consist. 


THE   END    OF   EDUCATION. 


QUESTIONS    ON   THE   TEXT. 


71 


1.  Show  the  indefiniteness  of  the  statement  that  education  is  prep- 
aration for  complete  living. 

2.  In  what  does  the  vagueness  of  Spencer's  statement  consist? 

3.  What  does  a  father  need  to  know  in  order  to  train  his  children 
wisely  ? 

4.  Show  that  Mr.  Spencer's  formula  does  not  impart  that  knowl- 
edge. 

5.  What  is  meant  by  conflict  of  duties  ? 

6.  What  does  Dr.  Dewey  mean  by  character  ? 

7.  Why  is  his  conception  of  the  end  of  education  unsatisfactory  ? 

8.  What  valuable  negative  idea  is  contained  in  it? 


SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  Would  it  help  a  teacher  to  tell  him  that  he  ought  to  seek  to 
train  perfect  men  and  women,  and,  if  not,  why  not? 

2.  Would  it  help  him  to  tell  him  that  a  perfect  man  takes  proper 
care  of  his  body  and  mind,  trains  his  children,  and  performs  his  duty 
as  a  citizen  intelligently,  and  uses  his  leisure  time  wisely  ? 

3.  Does  a  man  know  what  he  ought  to  try  to  make  of  himself 
when  he  knows  that  he  cannot  be  what  he  ought  without  having  the 
interests  of  society  at  heart? 

4.  Is  it  possible  for  you  to  have  a  clear  opinion  as  to  the  interests 
of  society  until  you  have  reached  a  clear  opinion  as  to  your  own 
interests  ? 

5.  What  are  your  interests  ? 

6.  Show  that  Mr.  Spencer  and  Dr.  Dewey  have  made  the  same 
mistake. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  TRUE   END   OF   EDUCATION. 

In  view  of  the  conclusions  reached  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  it  would  seem  that  an  attempt  to  give  some  sort 
of  scientific  basis  to  the  work  of  education  must  of  neces- 
sity end  in  failure.  If  a  work  is  to  rest  on  a  scientific 
foundation,  it  is  apparent  that  its  object  must  be  deter- 
mined with  absolute  definiteness;  but  the  precise  deter- 
mination of  the  end  of  education  seems  to  be  involved  in 
almost  hopeless  difficulties. 

The  Uncleamess  of  the  Fundamental  Conceptions  of 
Science. —  But  there  are  few  more  remarkable  things  in 
the  world  than  the  fact  that  great  results  are  constantly 
being  achieved  with  very  poor  tools.  While  it  would  seem 
to  be  self-evident  that  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  science 
unless  the  ideas  that  lie  at  its  foundation  are  definite,  it 
has  been  shown  again  and  again  that  these  ideas  are  woe- 
fully lacking  in  definiteness.  We  seem  to  know  what  we 
mean  when  we  use  the  terms  space,  time,  matter,  motion, 
substance,  cause,  until  we  begin  to  reflect  upon  them. 
But  the  more  we  consider  them,  the  more  we  are  con- 
vinced that  ultimate  scientific  ideas  cannot  be  precisely 
determined.  Nevertheless,  while  the  metaphysician  and 
the  logician  are  contending  about  the  nature  of  the  tools 
which  science  is  obliged  to  use,  the  latter  slowly  piles  dis- 
covery on  discovery,  thus  giving  a  practical  demonstration 

7« 


THE  TRUE   END   OF  EDUCATION. 


73 


of  the  fact  that  it  is  able  to  use  the  tools  at  hand  in  an 
effective  way. 

In  like  manner,  although  the  teacher  may  not  have  an 
accurate  notion  of  the  purpose  of  education,  it  will  be  ad- 
mitted that  a  discussion  which  diminishes  by  ever  so  little 
the  indefiniteness  of  his  ideas  will  decrease  his  inefficiency. 
Admitting,  then,  our  inability  to  reach  preciseness,  let  us 
see  what  can  be  done  in  the  way  of  making  our  concep- 
tion of  the  end  of  education  more  definite. 

Conclusions  as  to  the  End  of  Education  not  Susceptible  of 

Proof First  of  all,  it  behooves  us  to  inquire  whether 

there  are  any  things  in  the  world  that  are  absolutely 
good  —  good,  that  is  to  say,  not  as  means  to  ends,  but  in 
and  of  themselves.  In  considering  this  question,  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  it  is  not 
susceptible  of  proof.  The  very  fact  that  a  thing  is  as- 
sumed to  be  good  in  and  of  itself  involves  the  necessity  of 
assuming  it  without  proof,  either  on  the  testimony  of  one's 
individual  consciousness  or  on  that  of  the  world  in  general. 
For  a  thing  which  could  be  proved  to  be  good  would  follow 
as  a  logical  consequence  from  some  higher  good  —  would 
be  good,  not  as  an  end,  but  as  a  means  to  an  absolute 
good.  If,  for  example,  pleasure  is  assumed  to  be  an  abso- 
lute good,  then  anything  which  ministers  to  pleasure  will 
be  a  good  because  of  its  relation  to  pleasure  —  will  be  a 
mediate,  a  relative,  not  an  absolute  good.  Evidently,  then, 
in  endeavoring  to  ascertain  what  the  absolute  good  or 
goods  are,  our  method  is  determined  for  us  by  the  very 
nature  of  the  inquiry.  We  must  investigate  the  con- 
sciousness  of  the  world,  and  then  submit  the  answers  we 
receive  to  the  scrutiny  of  our  individual  consciousness. 


74  A    BROADER   ELEMENTARY    EDUCATION. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  point  out  that  the 
method  of  investigation  which  the.  nature  of  the  subject 
prescribes  is  by  no  means  singular.  Professor  Ormond 
has  shown  that  all  the  things  we  seem  to  ourselves  to 
know  may  be  put  in  one  or  the  other  of  three  classes : 
things  known  through  lower  immediacy,  things  known 
through  mediacy,  and  things  known  through  higher  im- 
mediacy. 

Things  Known  Through  Lower  Mediacy As  examples 

of  the  first  class  we  may  cite  our  knowledge  of  divers 
states  of  consciousness,  of  the  external  world,  and  of  the 
axioms  of  mathematics.  All  men  know  intuitively  the 
various  pleasures  and  pains  they  experience,  the  existence 
of  some  sort  of  external  reality,  and  the  truth  of  a  propo- 
sition, such  as,  A  straight  line  is  the  shortest  distance 
between  two  points.  Since  they  are  known  immediately, 
not  as  the  result  of  processes  of  reasoning,  they  are  ex- 
amples of  things  known  through  immediacy.  And  since 
in  order  to  be  known  they  do  not  require  any  special 
development  on  the  part  of  the  individual  or  of  the  society 
which  constitutes  his  social  environment,  they  are  illustra- 
tions of  things  known  through  lower  immediacy. 

Things  Known  Through  Mediacy.  —  What  we  know 
through  mediacy  includes  everything  that  we  have  learned 
through  processes  of  reasoning,  whether  inductive  or  de- 
ductive. Not  merely  the  conclusions  of  science,  but  those 
which  we  reach  from  day  to  day  in  the  performance  of  our 
ordinary  pursuits,  and  in  our  observations  of  men  and 
things,  are  examples  of  this  class. 


THE  TRUE  END  OF  EDUCATION.  75 

Things  Known  Through  Higher  Immediacy.  —  If  we 
make  a  survey  of  the  beliefs  by  which  our  lives  are  guided, 
we  shall  find  that  some  of  the  most  fundamental  and  far- 
reaching  of  them  cannot  be  twisted  so  as  to  fit  into  either 
of  these  classes.  Every  normal  American,  for  example, 
believes  in  the  practical  universality  of  law,  and  in  the  real- 
ity of  distinctions  of  right  and  wrong,  which  should  govern 
man  as  man  in  all  his  deahngs  with  his  fellows.  But 
these  beliefs  are,  so  to  speak,  late  achievements  of  the  hu- 
man race.  They  are  a  part  of  the  social  inheritance  of 
civilized  man,  a  part  of  the  system  of  beliefs  whicn  the 
growing  mind  absorbs  from  society  and  which  it  finds  con- 
stantly confirmed  by  its  experience.  But  they  differ  from 
the  first  class  above  mentioned  in  that  they  are  entirely 
unnecessary  to  the  mature  mind  as  such.  It  is  inconceiv- 
able that  a  human  being  could  ever  have  been  in  doubt  as 
to  the  reality  of  his  pleasures  and  pains,  and  as  to  the  ex- 
istence of  some  sort  of  external  reality.  And  that  only 
amounts  to  saying  that  the  very  nature  of  the  mind  is  such 
that  it  must  accept  these  things  as  realities.  But  this  is 
far  from  being  the  case  with  the  class  of  beliefs  we  are 
considering.  For  not  only  is  it  possible  to  suppose  a 
mature  and  powerful  mind  not  believing  in  the  universality 
of  law  and  in  the  reality  of  ethical  distinctions  which  should 
govern  man  as  man  in  his  dealings  with  his  fellows ;  we 
are  taught  by  anthropology  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  these 
beliefs  come  late  in  the  scale  of  human  development.  We 
know  that  even  now  they  are  held  only  by  the  most  highly 
civilized  peoples,  and  that  within  the  historic  period  they 
were  not  entertained  by  the  most  advanced  peoples. 
Even  Plato,  the  man  who  makes  such  **  havoc  of  our  origi- 
naUties,"  beUeved  that   right  and  wrong  were  one  thing 


76  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

between  Greek  and  Greek,  and  another  between  Greek  and 
barbarian. 

Having  admitted  that  the  reality  of  duty  and  the  uni- 
versality of  law  which  I  have  cited  as  examples  of  higher 
immediacy  are  believed  by  civilized  men,  not  by  thinking 
them  out,  but  because  those  things  have  become  established 
conventions,  it  may  be  urged  that,  in  the  last  analysis, 
there  is  no  difference  between  those  beliefs  and  beliefs  of 
the  second  class ;  that,  as  we  accept  them  on  the  authority 
of  society,  precisely  as  we  do  the  Copernican  theory, 
society,  or  some  member  of  it,  really  originated  them  in 
the  same  way  that  Copernicus  evolved  his  theory. 

An  adequate  reply  to  this  objection  would  involve  an 
excursion  into  the  domain  of  metaphysics  which  cannot 
here  be  undertaken.  I  must  content  myself  with  pointing 
out  that  while  it  is  easily  conceivable  that  a  normal  mind 
may  not  entertain  those  beliefs  which  we  have  been  con- 
sidering as  examples  of  higher  immediacy,  it  is  impossible 
to  imagine  a  man,  in  howsoever  low  a  stage  of  development, 
as  not  having  conceptions  which,  when  logically  developed 
and  freed  from  all  inner  contradictions,  would  lead  to  those 
beliefs.  A  man  without  any  belief  in  law  would  be  un- 
able to  profit  by  experience.  That  fire  once  burnt  him, 
that  water  once  quenched  his  thirst,  that  food  once  nour- 
ished him,  would  constitute  to  his  mind  no  reason  for 
believing  that  these  causes  could  be  depended  on  to  pro- 
duce the  same  effects.  Such  a  being  could  not  live  in  the 
world.  Nature  would  crush  him  utterly  and  remorse- 
lessly. 

In  like  manner,  it  is  impossible  for  man  to  live  alone, 
and  he  cannot  live  with  his  fellows  without  some  sort  of 
ethical  creed.     We  sometimes  say  that  the  hand  of  this  or 


THE  TRUE  END   OF   EDUCATION. 


77 


that  man  is  raised  against  all  his  fellows.  Such  a  state- 
ment is  wide  of  the  truth.  There  is  always  some  one, 
generally  some  group  of  men,  with  whom  the  most  hard- 
ened man  considers  himself  under  obligations  to  keep 
faith.  We  all  know  the  meaning  of  the  proverb,  "  There 
is  honor  even  among  thieves."  What  we  need  to  note  here 
is  that  the  proverb  not  only  states  a  fact,  but  illustrates 
a  profound  sociological  truth.  Man  can  exist,  as  Plato 
long  ago  taught,  only  provided  in  his  dealings  with  some 
of  his  fellows,  at  least,  he  assumes  that  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  right.  The  bad  man  of  whatever  type — criminal, 
corrupt  politician,  dishonest  business  man  —  will  be  found, 
as  a  rule,  to  derive  all  his  power  from  the  fact  that  he  is 
not  wholly  bad,  from  the  fact  that  there  is  always  a  larger 
or  smaller  group  to  whom  he  feels  himself  "in  honor 
bound."  An  utterly  bad  man  is  a  man  with  a  minimum 
of  power  for  evil,  a  man  whom  society  is  sure  to  hound  to 
destruction  sooner  or  later. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  difference  between  the  attitude 
of  what  we  may  call  prehistoric  man  and  that  of  the 
highest  product  of  civilization  towards  the  beliefs  which 
we  have  been  considering  is  this :  the  former  believed  in 
law  as  governing  some  of  the  events  which  came  under  his 
observation — fire  always  burns,  food  always  nourishes ;  the 
latter  believes  in  law  as  coextensive  with  the  universe. 
The  former  believed  in  ethical  distinctions  as  holding,  first, 
between  the  members  of  his  family,  later  as  applied  to  his 
tribe  or  clan,  and  later  still  as  applied  to  his  city  or  state. 
The  latter  believes  in  those  distinctions  as  holding  between 
man  and  man.  In  other  words,  the  slow  evolution  and 
growth  of  society  have  enabled  it  to  make  explicit  and 
universal   some   of   the   beliefs   which   were   held   in  an 


78  A   BROADER  ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

implicit,  particular  form  by  primitive  man ;  and  these 
beliefs,  become  explicit  and  general,  are  examples  of  higher 
immediacy. 

All  this  may  seem  an  unnecessary  digression.  It  has 
been  entered  upon  because  the  opinion  is  prevalent  among 
educated  men  that  all  of  their  beliefs  are  the  results  of 
processes  of  reasoning.  To  say  to  such  men  that  they  are 
expected  to  believe  certain  things  without  proof  seems  an 
insult  to  their  intelligence.  As  to  a  business  man  it  would 
seem  inconceivably  absurd  to  be  asked  to  give  something 
for  nothing,  not  as  a  matter  of  charity  but  as  a  matter  of 
business,  so  to  these  men  it  seems  "  unscientific  *'  to  believe 
what  they  cannot  prove :  and  to  be  unscientific  is  to  be  an 
intellectual  barbarian.  This  digression  will  have  accom- 
plished its  purpose  if  it  succeeds  in  suggesting  that  after 
all  there  was  a  profound  truth  expressed  by  St.  Anselm 
when  he  said,  "  I  believe  that  I  may  know  "  —  if  it  succeeds 
in  making  clear  the  fact  that  though  what  may  be  pro- 
posed as  the  ends  of  education  and  of  life  are  not  matters 
that  are  susceptible  of  proof,  we  may  nevertheless  be 
bound  as  rational  beings  to  accept  them  as  true. 

One  of  these  ends  may  be  illustrated  by  the  following 
passage  from  the  Greek  poet  Euripides : 

"  Happy  is  he  who  has  learned 
To  search  out  the  secret  of  things, 
Not  to  the  townsmen's  bane, 
Neither  for  aught  that  brings 
An  unrighteous  gain. 
But  the  ageless  order  he  sees 
Of  nature  that  cannot  die, 
And  the  cause  whence  it  springs, 
And  the  how  and  the  why. 
Never  have  thoughts  Uke  these 
To  a  deed  of  dishonor  been  turned." 


THE  TRUE   END   OF   EDUCATION.  79 

Intellectual  Activity  an  Ultimate  Good.  —  The  meaning 
of  this  is  unmistakable :  there  is,  one  thing,  at  any  rate, 
which  is  good  in  and  of  itself  —  intellectual  activity, 
searching  out  the  secret  of  things,  contemplation  of  the 
ageless  order  of  nature  and  the  causes  that  originated  it. 
The  philosopher  Anaxagoras,  who,  when  asked  what  made 
life  worth  living,  answered,  "The  contemplation  of  the 
heavens  and  of  the  universal  cosmic  order,'*  bore  testimony 
to  the  same  fact. 

The  Platonic  Socrates  expressed  the  same  conviction 
when  he  told  his  fellow  citizens  upon  his  trial  that  he 
preferred  death  rather  than  life  without  inquiry  and  specu- 
lation ;  that  if  they  would  let  him  go  free  if  he  would  dis- 
continue it,  he  would  reply  :  "  Men  of  Athens,  I  honor 
and  love  you ;  .  .  .  but  while  I  have  life  and  strength  I 
shall  never  cease  from  the  practice  and  teaching  of  phi- 
losophy, exhorting  any  one  whom  I  must  after  my  manner, 
and  convincing  him,  saying,  *  O  my  friend,  why  do  you, 
who  arc  a  citizen  of  the  great  and  mighty  and  wise  city  of 
Athens,  care  so  much  about  laying  up  the  greatest  amount 
of  money  and  honor  and  reputation,  and  so  little  about 
wisdom  and  truth  and  the  greatest  improvement  of  the 
soul ? '  " 

Plato,  in  making  the  supreme  good  of  life  to  consist  in 
wisdom,  and  this  in  the  contemplation  of  those  eternal 
essences  which  make  the  existence  of  all  particular  things 
possible,  gave  utterance  to  the  same  truth. 

So  also  Aristotle:  "Of  all  activities,"  he  says,  "theo- 
rizing is  the  most  delightful  and  the  best ;  so  that  if  God 
always  has  such  happiness  as  we  have  in  our  highest 
moments,  it  is  wonderful,  and  still  more  wonderful  if  he 
has  more.     Of  all  virtues,  this  is  the  most  self-sufficing ; 


8o  A   BROADER  ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

for  while,  in  common  with  every  other  virtue,  it  pre- 
supposes the  indispensable  conditions  of  life,  wisdom  does 
not,  like  justice  and  temperance  and  courage,  need  human 
objects  for  its  exercise :  theorizing  may  go  on  in  perfect 
solitude.  .  .  .  All  other  pursuits  are  exercised  for  some 
end  lying  outside  themselves  —  war  entirely  for  the  sake 
of  peace,  and  statesmanship  in  great  part  for  the  sake  of 
honor  and  power;  but  theorizing  yields  no  extraneous 
profit  great  or  small,  and  is  loved  for  itself  alone." 

Likewise  Wordsworth  when  he  said :  "  To  me  the  mean- 
est flower  that  blows  can  give  thoughts  that  do  often  lie 
too  deep  for  tears."  Thus,  too,  George  Ehot  when,  in  her 
first  story,  she  makes  one  of  her  characters  say  :  "  Depend 
upon  it,  my  dear  lady,  you  would  gain  unspeakably  if  you 
would  learn  with  me  to  see  some  of  the  poetry  and  the 
pathos,  the  tragedy  and  the  comedy,  lying  in  the  experience 
of  the  human  soul,  that  looks  out  through  dull  gray  eyes, 
and  that  speaks  in  a  voice  of  quite  ordinary  tones.*' 

Witness,  finally,  the  modern  scientific  specialist  who  is 
indifferent  to  money,  and  sometimes  neglectful  of  his 
family,  in  order  that  he  may  devote  himself  the  more  to  his 
researches.  Like  Lavoisier,  who  asked  for  a  postponement 
of  his  execution  that  he  might  perform  certain  experiments, 
he  is  inclined  to  value  life  itself  only  as  it  gives  him  an 
opportunity  for  investigation. 

Evidence  of  the  conviction  that  what  Aristotle  calls  the 
theorizing  activity  is  at  least  one  of  the  absolute  goods  is 
found  in  quarters  where  we  would  least  expect  it.  Few 
things  are  more  pathetic  than  the  struggle  between  the 
piety  of  the  early  Christian  and  his  love  of  knowledge. 
Excusing  himself  to  himself  for  his  devotion  to  the  scraps 
of  knowledge  that  circulated  under  the  name  of  the  seven 


THE   TRUE   END    OF   EDUCATION.  8 1 

liberal  arts,  on  the  ground  that  they  were  essential  to  the 
ends  of  piety  —  arithmetic,  in  calculating  Easter,  and  so 
on  —  he  yet  shows  in  unmistakable  ways  the  ineradicable 
love  of  knowledge  in  and  for  itself.  Even  the  modem 
business  man,  consumed,  as  he  often  is,  with  his  passion 
for  wealth,  shows,  by  the  attention  which  he  bestows  upon 
his  morning  paper,  that  there  is  something  in  his  experi- 
ence which  would  enable  him  in  a  quiet  hour  to  understand 
and  appreciate  the  scholar's  thirst  for  knowledge.  And 
the  consciousness  of  every  man  bears  testimony  to  the 
truth  affirmed  by  all  of  these  witnesses.  Every  one  of  us 
knows,  and  knows  with  a  certainty  that  needs  no  aid  of 
logic,  that  thought,  the  play  of  the  mind  about  the  facts 
of  the  world  and  of  life,  is  at  least  one  of  the  things  that 
make  life  worth  living. 

This,  then,  is  one  of  the  ends  which  education  shall  set 
before  itself :  the  development  of  the  power  to  think  —  not 
simply  as  a  means  to  other  ends,  but  because  the  exercise 
of  thought  is  intrinsically  good,  a  thing  to  be  desired  for 
itself  alone. 

The  Appreciation  of  Beauty  Another  Ultimate  Good.  —  Is 

there  anything  else  which  we  have  a  right  to  pronounce 
good  in  and  of  itself  ?  Surely.  Recall  the  day  when,  late 
in  August,  you  took  a  drive  through  the  country  along  the 
shore  of  a  river  sleepily  winding  its  way  towards  the  sea, 
its  banks  guarded  by  tall  old  sycamores  whose  leaves  here 
and  there  gave  a  hint  that  autumn  was  coming,  and  as  your 
eye  took  in  the  panorama  that  spread  itself  out  before 
you  —  grazing  sheep,  fields  of  yellow  corn,  brooks  hurrying 
to  the  river  through  groves  of  green  trees,  —  and  as  your 
ear  drank  in  the  melodies  of  the  country  sounds  —  tinkling 


id  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

cow-bells,  humming  insects,  songs  of  birds,  voices  of  chil- 
dren  at  play,  —  perhaps  those  beautiful  lines  of  George 
Eliot  passed  through  your  mind : 

"  It  seemed  the  light  was  never  loved  before. 
Now  each  one  says,  'Twill  go  and  come  no  more; 
No  budding  branch,  no  pebble  from  the  brook, 
No  form,  no  shadow,  but  new  deamess  took 
From  the  one  thought  that  life  must  have  an  end." 

Recall  all  this  and,  say,  did  you  not  find  that  it  was  good  ? 
Surely  the  beauty  of  nature,  the  beauty  of  art  —  whether 
in  painting,  sculpture,  architecture,  music,  or  literature,  — 
beauty  of  any  kind,  gives  life  intrinsic  value.  For  him 
who  has  the  eye  to  see  it,  beauty,  like  thought,  has  an 
intrinsic  right  to  a  place  among  the  realities  of  the  world. 
He  who  demands  to  know  why  our  children  should  be 
trained  to  an  appreciation  of  the  beautiful  only  proves  by 
his  question  that  he  does  not  know  what  beauty  is,  that  it 
is  to  him  a  mere  name. 

Moral  Character  Another  Ultimate  Good.  —  Is  there  any 
other  absolute  good  discernible  ?  In  the  passage  already 
quoted  Aristotle  says  that  theorizing  activity  does  not  re- 
quire the  co-operation  of  others,  and  the  same  may  be  said 
of  the  appreciation  of  the  beautiful.  But  there  is  a  third 
absolute  good  that  education  should  seek  to  realize.  We 
may  call  it  the  moral  good  —  which  depends  chiefly,  if  not 
entirely,  on  our  relations  with  other  men.  It  consists  in 
the  practical  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  rights  of  others 
have  the  same  validity  as  ours,  and  that  we  cannot  trespass 
upon  them  without  losing  the  best  things  of  life.  The 
man  who  questions  this  only  proves  that  he  has  had  no 
experience  of  this  good.     To  him  who  yields  himself  to  it 


THE   TRUE   END   OF   EDUCATION.  83 

it  speaks  in  terms  of  such  persuasiveness,  and  at  the  same 
time  of  such  authority,  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  its  right  to 
the  homage  which  it  receives. 

Friendship  and  Domestic  Affection  Ultimate  Goods.  —  Is 

there  a  fourth  absolute  good  at  which  education  should 
aim  ?  Students  of  Aristotle  have  noted  his  fine  distinc- 
tion of  true  and  false  self-love,  the  latter  consisting  in  the 
attempt  to  secure  for  one's  self  the  greatest  share  of 
money,  honor,  and  bodily  pleasure ;  the  former,  in  the 
attempt  to  secure  for  one's  self  the  absolute  goods  of  life. 
They  have  also  observed  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  Stagyrite 
true  self-love  will  lead  a  man  to  treat  a  friend  as  another 
self.  The  good  man,  the  true  lover  of  himself,  may  even 
give  up  wealth,  position,  life  itself  for  the  sake  of  his 
friend,  in  order  that  he  may  realize  thereby  the  greatest 
good  of  life.  From  this  description  it  is  evident  that 
friendship,  that  "  partnership  of  speech  and  thought  in 
which  the  distinctive  life  of  man  consists,"^  was  regarded 
by  Aristotle  as  one  of  the  things  that  have  absolute  worth, 
one  of  the  things  that  make  life  worth  living.  Was  Aris- 
totle right  ?  No  one  will  doubt  it  who  knows  the  meaning 
of  friendship. 

Can  we  find  any  other  absolute  good  ?  Thousands  of 
admirers  of  Socrates  have  asked  themselves  in  perplexity 
and  pain  whether  even  for  the  sake  of  the  great  service 
which  he  rendered  to  humanity  he  had  a  right  to  neglect 
his  family.  And  few  readers  of  Phcedo  have  doubted  that 
the  classic  beauty  of  the  Platonic  Socrates  as  he  is  pre- 
sented in  that  immortal  dialogue  is  marred  by  his  lack  of 
regard  for  his  family.    Throughout  the  universe  these  feel- 

1  Educational  Review,  1901,  p.  249. 

56 


84      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

ings  are  only  the  expression  of  the  universal  feeling  of 
humanity  —  that  domestic  affection  fills  a  place  in  human 
character  and  human  life  that  nothing  else  can  take. 

Sympathy,  also,  an  Absolute  Good.  —  Sympathy,  also,  is 
one  of  the  things  that  give  absolute  value  to  life.  It  is 
indeed  true,  as  Wordsworth  said,  that 

**Men  live  by  admiration,  hope,  love; 
And  even  as  these  are  well  and  wisely  fixed, 
In  dignity  of  being  we  ascend.'* 

But  the  human  brute  that  sympathizes  with  his  fellow 
brutes  is  less  of  a  brute  than  one  who  does  not.  What  he 
needs  for  his  transformation  and  uplifting  is,  not  less  sym- 
pathy, but  a  change  in  its  direction.  And  we  feel  that  the 
value  of  sympathy  is  not  exhausted  by  the  fact  that  it  has 
a  close  relation  to  action.  It  is  indeed  a  notorious  fact  that 
sympathy  often  leads  to  unwise  action.  The  existence  of 
the  tramp  profession,  if  the  expression  may  be  pardoned, 
would  be  impossible,  if  it  were  not  for  misdirected  sym- 
pathy. But  all  know  that  if  the  mischief  is  to  be  remedied 
without  inflicting  any  injury  on  society,  it  must  be,  not  by 
decreasing  sympathy,  but  by  increasing  intelligence.  The 
man  who  is  conscious  of  a  strong  impulse  to  help  the 
undeserving,  but  who  refrains  from  doing  it  because  he 
knows  he  is  thereby  putting  a  premium  on  shiftlessness 
and  degradation,  is  surely  a  better  type  of  man  than  he 
who  has  no  impulse  to  help  them. 

Loyalty  an  Ultimate  Good.  —  We  cannot  undertake  to 
enumerate  all  the  things  of  the  mind  that  give  value  to  life, 
but  one  more  may  be  mentioned  —  loyalty.  Froude  tells 
us  that   "between  the  lords    [of  the  Middle  Ages]  and 


THE  TRUE  END   OT   EDUCATION.  85 

their  feudatories  there  were  links  of  genuine  loyalty  which 
drew  high  and  low  together  as  they  have  not  been  drawn 
since  the  so-called  chains  have  been  broken.  .  .  .  No  fact 
of  history  is  more  certain  than  that  the  peasants  born  on 
the  great  baronies  looked  up  to  these  lords  of  theirs  with 
real  and  reverent  affection.  .  .  .  Custom  dies  hard,  and 
this  feeling  of  feudal  loyalty  has  lingered  into  our  own  times 
with  very  little  to  support  it.  Carlyle  once  told  me  of  a 
lawsuit  pending  in  Scotland  affecting  the  succession  of  a 
great  estate  of  which  he  had  known  something.  The  case 
depended  on  a  family  secret  known  only  to  one  old  servant, 
who  refused  to  reveal  it.  A  Kirk  minister  was  sent  to  tell 
her  that  she  must  speak  on  peril  of  her  soul.  *  Peril  of  my 
soul ! '  she  said.  *  And  would  ye  put  the  honor  of  an  auld 
Scottish  family  in  competition  with  the  soul  of  a  poor  crea- 
ture like  me  ?*'*  I  think  the  thrill  of  admiration  that  we 
experience  when  we  hear  such  a  story  is  the  mind's  spon- 
taneous recognition  of  the  fact  that  loyalty,  however  mis- 
guided, is  one  of  the  things  that  enrich  life. 

It  is,  then,  things  of  the  mind  alone  that  have  absolute 
worth,  that  make  life  worth  living.  And  these  things  of 
the  mind  are  (i)  what  Aristotle  calls  the  theorizing  ac- 
tivity, the  apprehension  of  an  isolated  fact  in  wider  and 
wider  circles  of  relations,  until  to  the  poetic  temperament 
the  "  meanest  flower  that  blows  suggests  thoughts  too  deep 
for  tears,"  and  eyes  and  tones  that  would  otherwise  be  dull 
and  commonplace  become  weighted  with  the  tragedy  and 
comedy  of  life ;  (2)  the  appreciation__of__the_be2i^^ 
(3)  devotion  to  duty;  (4)  friendship;  (5)  domestic  affec- 
tion; (6)  sympathy  and  loyalty.  And  it  is  the  realiza- 
tion of  these  things  which  education  should  set  before 
itself  as  the  ultimate  aim. 


86      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

Comparative  Value  of  the  Various  Ultimate  Goods  of 
Life.  —  To  attempt  to  ascertain  the  comparative  value  of 
these  various  elements  would  be  for  the  most  part  an  idle 
and  profitless  discussion.  The  truth,  even  if  it  were  attain- 
able, and  it  probably  is  not,  would  be  of  questionable  value 
for  education.  But  there  are  two  questions  in  this  connec- 
tion upon  which  the  philosophy  of  education  must  decide : 
Is  the  development  of  the  intellect,  of  the  power  to  ap- 
prehend the  relations  between  things,  of  more  importance 
than  the  development  of  character  ?  Is  the  dogma  of  art 
for  art's  sake  true  —  may  true  art  prosecute  its  aim  with- 
out regard  to  ethical  considerations  ?  Manifestly,  if  these 
two  questions  are  answered  in  the  affirmative  the  primary 
aim  of  the  teacher  must  be  the  intellectual  and  aesthetic 
development  of  the  pupil,  making  the  formation  of  char- 
acter a  matter  of  secondary  importance. 

It  is  more  than  doubtful  whether  arguments  can  exert 
any  influence  on  the  decision  which  any  individual  may 
make  as  to  which  of  these  —  intellectual,  aesthetic,  or 
moral  development  —  shall  be  the  primary  aim  of  his  own 
life.  A  man  who  through  education  or  heredity  is  willing 
to  do  violence  to  his  sense  of  duty  for  the  sake  of  intel- 
lectual or  aesthetic  culture  is  joined  to  his  idols ;  there  is 
nothing  to  be  done  but  to  let  him  alone.  But  if  he  admits 
that  all  these  things  have  an  intrinsic  value,  if  he  only 
differs  with  you  as  to  which  should  have  the  preference  in 
case  of  a  conflict,  then  he  can  be  forced  to  admit  that  all 
the  rest  of  the  world  should  be  regulated  by  principles  the 
value  of  which,  in  his  own  case,  he  refuses  to  acknowledge. 
For  if  intellectual  and  aesthetic  culture,  loyalty  to  duty, 
sympathy,  friendship,  and  domestic  affection  are  good 
things,  then  the  more  of  them  the  better :  every  addition 


THE   TRUE    END   OF   EDUCATION.  gy 

to  them  is  an  increase  of  the  spiritual  wealth  of  the  world. 
But  the  only  one  of  these  principles  whose  one  aim  is  the 
increase  of  spiritual  wealth  is  loyalty  to  duty.  Make 
intellectual  culture,  or  aesthetic  culture,  or  friendship,  or 
sympathy,  or  domestic  affection  the  element  of  surpassing 
worth,  and  the  enlargement  of  the  goods  of  life,  increasing 
the  number  of  people  who  possess  them,  becomes  a  matter 
of  secondary  and  incidental  importance.  You  want  your 
friends  and  the  members  of  your  family  to  have  the  things 
which  seem  good  to  you  because  of  their  personal  relation 
to  you ;  for  the  cultivation  of  your  own  intellectual  and 
aesthetic  nature  requires  the  contact  of  your  mind  with 
other  cultivated  minds.  But  loyalty  to  duty  makes  you 
regard  the  goods  of  other  people  as  of  equal  importance 
with  your  own,  or,  rather,  modifying  the  fine  saying  of 
Aristotle,  makes  you  see  that  the  attainment  of  your  own 
highest  good  depends  upon  your  doing  what  you  can  to 
help  others  to  attain  theirs.  Evidently,  then,  the  man 
who  refuses  to  admit  that  he  is  boimd  to  sacrifice  an  iota 
of  his  intellectual  or  aesthetic  life  for  the  sake  of  other 
men  is  logically  bound  to  concede  that  every  one  else 
should.  He  refuses  to  admit  it  in  his  own  case  because 
the  realization  of  the  goods  of  life  by  other  men  is  as 
nothing  to  his  consciousness  when  it  comes  into  competi- 
tion with  the  things  which  seem  to  him  to  be  of  supreme 
worth ;  he  is  bound  to  concede  it  in  the  case  of  the  rest 
of  the  world  because,  when  his  own  personality  is  not  in 
question,  the  good  of  one  abstract  man,  so  to  speak,  must 
appear  equal  to  that  of  another,  and  the  greater  the 
number  of  men  who  realize  the  condition  that  gives  life 
intrinsic  value  the  greater  the  wealth  of  the  world. 

The   ultimate  aim   of   education,   then,   should   be  to 


88      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

promote  the  intellectual  and  aesthetic  culture,  enlarge  the 
sympathies,  strengthen  and  purify  the  friendships  and 
domestic  affections  of  those  who  are  being  educated,  and 
to  make  devotion  to  duty  the  governing  principle  of  their 
lives. 

A  Standard  for  Judging  Institutions.  —  This  gives  us  a 
standard  by  which  not  merely  schools  but  all  institutions 
whatsoever  may  be  judged.  The  one  question  the  answer  to 
which  determines  the  right  of  an  institution  to  be  is  :  Does 
it  help  men  think  more  clearly,  feel  more  deeply,  act  more 
wisely.'^  This  is  our  only  criterion  for  determining  the 
value  of  civilization.  If  civilization  is  better  than  barba- 
rism, the  primary  reason  is  not  that  it  increases  the  amount 
of  wealth  per  capita.  It  is  that  civilization  has  a  greater 
tendency  to  make  men  clear-headed,  appreciative  of  beauty, 
responsive  to  the  calls  of  duty  and  affection. 

The  world  has  always  been  prone  to  forget  the  end  in 
the  means.  It  has  no  difficulty  in  realizing  that  in  any 
kind  of  manufacture  it  is  the  product  which  is  the  essen- 
tial thing.  We  would  not  permit  an  architect  to  distract 
our  attention  from  an  ill-planned  house  by  insisting  that  his 
drawings  were  beautiful.  But  in  the  midst  of  the  won- 
derful increase  in  the  tools  of  civilization,  we  find  it  hard 
to  bear  in  mind  that  the  important  thing  is  the  product  to 
which  all  these  things  must  minister  if  they  are  to  have 
any  value,  and  that  product  is  man.  We  are  certainly 
making  marvellous  improvements  in  various  arts ;  are  we 
making  corresponding  improvements  in  the  art  of  living  ? 

Common  opinion  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  it  is 
precisely  this  that  the  school  must  undertake  to  do  if  it  is 
to   discharge   its  obligations   to  society.      Its  task   is  to 


THE  TRUE   END   OF   EDUCATION,  89 

make  its  pupils  masters  of  the  art  of  living.  In  order 
to  perform  it,  the  school  must  rid  its  pupils  of  what 
Plato  called  the  lie  in  the  soul,  self-deception,  as  to  the 
ultimate  goods  of  life.  It  must  make  them  realize  that 
not  in  their  wealth,  not  in  their  social  position,  not  in  their 
reputation,  but  in  themselves  is  to  be  found  that  which 
makes  life  a  success  or  a  failure. 

It  is  not  of  course  intended  that  these  things  are  to  be 
taught  to  little  children,  or  to  students  of  any  age  as 
matter  to  be  memorized.  They  are  to  be  taught,  not  as 
concepts,  but  as  ideals  ;  to  be  taught  in  such  a  way  that 
they  may  become  the  underlying  forces  of  life. 

QUESTIONS   ON   THE  TEXT. 

1.  What  are  some  of  the  fundamental  conceptions  of  science? 

2.  What  do  you  understand  by  proof? 

3.  Why  cannot  conclusions  as  to  the  end  of  education  be  proved  ? 

4.  State  and  illustrate  what  Professor  Ormond  means  by  "lower 
immediacy,"  "  mediacy,"  and  "  higher  immediacy." 

5.  What  did  Aristotle  mean  by  theorizing  activity? 

6.  Mention  the  other  ultimate  goods  which  education  should  seek 
to  realize. 

7.  Which  of  the  ultimate  goods  of  life  must  take  precedence  of  the 
rest,  and  why? 

8.  Show  that  our  conclusions  furnish  a  standard  by  which  institu- 
tions may  be  judged. 

SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  Show  that  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case  proof  presupposes 
something  which  is  known  without  proof. 

2.  What  do  you  understand  by  the  phrase,  "  end  of  education  "? 

3.  Show  that  the  end  of  education  must  be  incapable  of  proof. 

4.  Can  you  mention  any  changes  that  would  have  taken  place  in 
the  schools  of  the  Middle  Ages  if  the  end  of  education  had  been 
clearly  understood? 


90  A    BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

5.^  Do  you  think  that  American  public  opinion  correctly  appre- 
hends the  true  object  of  education  ? 

6.  If  the  people  of  your  town  should  come  to  believe  what  the 
text  teaches  as  to  the  purpose  of  education  what  changes  would  they 
require  in  your  school  ? 

7.  Do  the  conclusions  of  the  text  enable  you  to  determine  in  what 
national  greatness  consists? 


CHAPTER  VII. 

EDUCATION  AS    PREPARATION    FOR   RATIONAL  LIVING. 

Education  and  Public  Opinion. — At  this  point  the  edu- 
cational  statesman  takes  up  the  argument.  All  this,  he 
says,  would  be  very  well  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  in  a  world 
where  men  were  like  the  lilies  of  the  field.  But  in  our 
workaday  world  men  have  to  earn  their  living  by  the 
sweat  of  their  brows,  and  the  public  insists  that  their 
education  shall  prepare  them  for  it.  And  though  people 
in  general  may  be  mistaken  as  to  what  genuine  advance- 
ment in  life  means,  we  must  take  their  opinions  into 
account,  else  we  shall  find  that  the  schools  we  would 
establish  will  lack  money  for  their  support,  and  those  we 
open  will  be  without  pupils. 

Blunder  of  the  Old  Greeks.  —  The  educational  philoso- 
pher finds  no  difficulty  here.  Insisting  so  strenuously  on 
the  ultimate  end  of  education,  he  must  not  lose  sight  of 
the  mysterious  union  of  mind  and  body,  and  the  conse- 
quent necessity  of  training  with  that  in  view.  The  fun- 
damental blunder  of  the  old  Greek  thinkers  was  their 
tendency  to  treat  education  as  though  we  had  no  bodily 
necessities  to  provide  for.  As  the  modern  business  man 
inclines  to  regard  education  as  purely  a  means  of  making 
better  provision  for  the  body  —  clothing  it  with  finer 
garments,  feeding  it  with  richer  food,  sheltering  it  with 
more  beautiful  houses  —  so  the  old  Greek  was  wont   to 

91 


92  A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

look  upon  education  as  though  it  had  to  deal  with  de- 
tached souls.  And  while  the  former's  opinion  is  the  more 
fundamentally  false,  a  real  philosophy  of  education  must 
admit  that  both  views  are  one-sided. 

This  statement  would  be  true  if,  in  providing  for  one's 
needs,  one  had  to  consider  himself  alone.  But  it  is  in 
earning  one's  living  that  one  finds  his  best  opportunity 
to  render  effective  service  to  society. 

A  constantly  increasing  number  of  men  consider  the 
earning  a  living  as  incidental  to  the  service  they  are  render- 
ing society.  Their  bodies  must  be  provided  for,  of  course, 
but  so  must  their  souls.  The  higher,  intellectual  life,  how- 
ever, attains  its  supreme  worth  only  as  it  is  employed  in 
rendering  useful  service  to  society.  The  ultimate  reason, 
then,  for  work  is  that  by  means  of  it  we  find  our  best  op- 
portunity to  give  expression  to  our  noblest  impulses.  The 
education,  therefore,  that  prepares  us  to  do  it  in  this  spirit, 
and  to  do  it  well,  ministers  to  our  best  self. 

We  are  bound  all  the  more  rigorously  to  take  this  view 
since  from  another  standpoint  it  is  evident  that  these  bodies 
of  ours  are  not  such  mistakes  after  all,  and  the  necessity  of 
making  provision  for  them  not  the  curse  that  it  seemed. 
To  Greeks  like  Plato  and  Aristotle  they  seemed  a  sort  of 
blunder,  and  the  work  of  providing  for  them  so  essentially 
degrading  as  of  necessity  to  cut  off  those  engaged  in  it  from 
participating  in  the  duties  and  privileges  of  citizenship.  But 
we  have  learned  that  doing  whatever  we  have  to  do  honestly 
and  well  brings  peace,  "  as  much  as  seems  possible  to  the 
nature  of  man ;  that,  ascending  from  lowest  to  highest, 
industry  wisely  followed  brings  happiness.  Ask  the  laborer 
in  the  field,  at  the  forge,  or  in  the  mine  ;  ask  the  patient 
delicate-fingered  artisan,  or  the  strong-armed  fiery-hearted 


PREPARATION   FOR   RATIONAL  LIVING.  93 

worker  in  bronze  and  in  marble,  and  with  the  colors  of  light ; 
and  none  of  these  who  are  true  workmen  will  ever  tell  you 
that  they  have  found  the  law  of  life  an  unkind  one  —  that 
in  the  sweat  of  their  face  they  should  eat  bread  till  they 
return  to  the  ground."  ^ 

Respect,  then,  for  any  kind  of  useful  work,  preparation 
to  do  it  well,  is  a  part  of  the  equipment  of  life  even  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  philosopher.  In  the  solution  of  the 
problems  connected  with  our  work  our  theorizing  activity 
finds  large  scope  for  exercise,  and  in  the  conscientious 
performance  of  it  our  loyalty  to  duty  finds  its  most  be- 
neficent expression,  and  our  lives  the  highest  attainable 
peace. 

Mr.  Spencer's  Theory.  — All  the  other  elements  of  Mr. 
Spencer's  conception  of  complete  living  become  clear  and 
definite  in  the  light  of  the  ultimate  aim  of  education.  To 
live  completely,  he  says,  we  must  know  how  to  treat  the 
body.  Why  ?  Because  health  is  an  end  in  itself  ?  No, 
but  because  we  are  hampered  in  our  efforts  to  attain  the 
great  ends  of  life  without  it.  Without  health  we  can  neither 
think,  nor  appreciate  beauty,  nor  feel  affection  for  our  friends 
and  family,  nor  work  beneficently  for  our  fellows  as  we 
otherwise  might. 

From  this  point  of  view,  also,  we  are  able  to  see  the  true 
meaning  of  the  phrase,  "in  what  way  to  treat  the  mind.'* 
We  treat  the  mind  most  wisely  when  we  help  it  most  effec- 
tively to  ascend  in  "dignity  of  being."  Now  we  know  to 
what  end  we  should  train  our  children :  to  the  end  that 
they  shall  so  realize  that  the  best  thing  in  life  is  mental 
wealth  as  to  strive  supremely  to  attain  it. 

1  Ruskin's  Sesame  and  Lilies,  p.  155. 


94      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

Dr.  Dewey's  Theory. — Now  also  we  are  able  to  see  the 
truth  and  limitations  of  Dr.  Dewey's  theory.  We  know 
now  that  the  true  interests  of  society  consist  in  the  increase 
of  precisely  this  "spiritual  wealth,"^  and  we  understand 
that  we  must  learn  how  to  contribute  to  it,  and  do  our 
utmost  to  promote  it,  because  in  this  way  only  can  we  at- 
tain to  a  realization  of  our  best  self.  Aristotle  was  wiser 
than  Dr.  Dewey.  The  Greek  philosopher  saw  that  no 
deeper  reason  for  any  course  of  activity  could  possibly  be 
assigned  than  that  through  it  only  could  one's  true  self  find 
expression.  Dr.  Dewey  writes  as  though  the  promotion  of 
the  interests  of  society  were  an  end  in  itself ;  as  though 
the  interests  of  society  could  be  made  intelligible  until  one 
understands  the  interests  of  individuals,  as  though  the 
interests  of  society  could  be  of  ultimate  significance  until 
one  has  found  the  ultimate  value  in  the  life  of  the  individual. 

From  this  standpoint,  also,  we  are  able  to  see  the  truth 
and  error  in  the  contention  of  the  educational  PhiHstine. 
"  Give  us  the  three  R's,"  he  says ;  "  they  are  the  essential 
things."  They  certainly  are  essential.  The  first  error  of 
the  Philistine  consists  in  supposing  that  nothing  else 
counts ;  the  second,  in  the  assumption  that  the  life  to 
which  they  minister  is  the  life  of  the  body.  We  want  the 
three  R*s  for  the  sake  of  the  mind,  and  we  want  every- 
thing else  that  can  contribute  to  its  well-being.  The 
pagan  Plato  saw  that  religion,  art,  science,  literature,  gov- 
ernment, life  itself  may  be  utilized  in  the  development  of 
the  growing  mind. 

The  Constituents  of  Rational  Living:  Knowledge. — It 
will,  perhaps,  serve  to  give  greater  definiteness  to  our  con- 

*  The  phrase  is  George  Eliot^s. 


PREPARATION   FOR   RATIONAL  LIVING. 


95 


ception  if  we  note  the  constituents  of  the  complete  or 
rational  life  for  which  education  is  to  prepare  us.  The 
first  one,  manifestly,  is  knowledge.  All  the  goods  of  the 
world,  whether  ultimate  or  subordinate,  are  attainable  only 
by  mediate  processes.  Health,  for  example,  is  a  good;  but 
in  order  to  regain  it,  if  we  have  lost  it,  we  must  do  and 
leave  undone  a  great  many  things.  What  shall  we  do? 
what  shall  we  avoid  ?  Evidently  without  some  knowledge 
of  the  laws  of  health  we  are  absolutely  in  the  dark.  And 
so  it  is  with  everything  else  that  we  would  accomplish. 
Whether  we  would  teach  school,  or  build  a  house,  or  man- 
age a  farm,  or  conduct  a  bank,  or  carry  on  a  government, 
without  knowledge  we  can  do  nothing. 

Intellectual  Power. — But  if  we  have  knowledge  and 
knowledge  only,  we  are  almost  helpless.  We  can  acquire 
a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  health  from  books  and  lectures. 
But  how  much  and  what  to  eat,  how  much  exercise  and 
how  much  sleep  we  require,  no  one  can  tell  us.  We  learn 
those  things  through  reflection  upon  the  laws  of  health 
and  through  our  own  experience.  We  can  learn  from 
teachers  and  books  the  laws  of  the  mind.  But  laws  of  the 
mind  will  not  apply  themselves.  No  amount  of  knowledge 
of  them  will  tell  us  what  we  shall  teach  this  particular 
child  at  this  particular  time,  or  how  we  shall  discipline  him 
when  he  goes  astray.  We  can  learn,  also,  from  books  and 
lectures  the  facts  of  history  and  some  of  the  facts  that  un- 
derlie  them.  But  this  knowledge  alone  will  not  enable  any 
one  to  say  with  certainty  whether  it  was  wise  for  the 
United  States  to  acquire  the  Philippine  Islands.  One's 
opinion  on  that  subject  must  be  the  result  of  reflection. 
In  a  word,  intelligent,  rational   living   requires   not   only 


96      A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

knowledge,  but  reflection,  and  that  of  a  kind  which  is  only 
possible  to  a  well-trained  mind, 

A  Cultivated  Emotional  Nature.  —  Once  more  :  it  is  not 
enough  to  have  the  knowledge  bearing  upon  any  depart- 
ment of  activity,  and  to  be  able  to  apply  the  laws  that 
underlie  it  to  particular  cases.  As  the  late  Thomas  Da- 
vidson put  it :  "  It  is  perfectly  obvious  as  soon  as  it  is 
pointed  out,  that  all  criminal  life  is  due  to  a  false  distribu- 
tion of  affection,  which  again  is  often,  though  by  no  means 
always,  due  to  a  want  of  intellectual  cultivation.  He  that 
attributes  to  anything  a  value  greater  or  less  than  it  really 
possesses  in  the  order  of  things  has  already  placed  himself 
in  a  false  relation  to  it,  and  will  certainly,  when  he  comes 
to  act  with  reference  to  it,  act  criminally.*'  We  shall 
realize  at  once  what  Davidson  meant  if  we  recall  the 
methods  employed  by  many  men  to  get  rich.  Why  do 
they  do  it  ?  Because  they  care  too  much  for  wealth  ;  be- 
cause they  put  upon  it  a  valuation  far  in  excess  of  what  it 
really  possesses. 

An  Effective  Will.  — But  a  man  may  have  knowledge,  a 
disciplined  intellect,  properly  trained  emotions,  and  stil) 
not  act  intelligently.  Take  the  case  of  Coleridge.  He 
certainly  lacked  neither  knowledge  nor  the  power  to  apply 
it,  and  there  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  he  did  not  esti- 
mate the  goods  of  life  at  their  proper  worth.  But  the 
weakness  of  his  will  prevented  him  from  holding  the 
values  of  things  steadily  before  his  mind  and  governing 
his  action  accordingly.  These  four,  then,  knowledge,  dis- 
cipline, a  true  estimate  of  the  values  of  things,  an  effective 
will,  are  the  constituents  of  rational  living.     He  who  ap- 


PREPARATION   FOR   RATIONAL  LIVING.  97 

prehends  the  great  ends  of  life,  who  knows  the  facts  in 
those  departments  of  knowledge  in  which  he  is  obliged  to 
act  in  order  to  attain  those  ends,  and  the  principles  that 
underlie  them  ;  who  has  the  ability  to  apply  those  princi- 
ples to  the  various  cases  that  present  themselves  in  the 
course  of  his  daily  life;  whose  emotional  nature  is  so 
trained  that  his  love  for  things  is  in  proportion  to  their 
proper  worth,  and  whose  will  impels  him  to  control  his  ac- 
tions accordingly — he  alone  is  the  educated  man,  for  he 
alone  is  capable  of  living  rationally. 

QUESTIONS   ON   THE  TEXT. 

1.  What  blunder  did  the  old  Greeks  make  ? 

2.  In  what  sense  may  the  earning  of  a  livelihood  be  regarded  as 
incidental  to  the  service  of  society  ? 

3.  What  is  the  meaning  of  the  quotation  from  Ruskin  ? 

4.  Show  that  the  various  elements  of  Mr.  Spencer's  conception  of 
complete  living  become  clear  in  the  light  of  our  conclusions. 

5.  State  and  illustrate  the  various  constituents  of  rational  living. 

SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  Do  you  know  any  men  who  render  important  services  to  society 
without  compensation  ? 

2.  What  statement  made  in  the  text  do  they  illustrate? 

3.  Can  you  cite  examples  from  your  own  observation  which  prove 
the  truth  of  Ruskin's  opinion  ? 

4.  Mr.  Spencer  writes  as  though  the  only  knowledge  needed  to 
train  the  mind  wisely  is  the  knowledge  of  psychology  ;  is  he  right  ? 

5.  How  does  it  happen  that  so  many  parents  and  teachers  who 
are  ignorant  of  psychology  have  considerable  success  in  training 
children  ? 

6.  The  mind  of  every  teacher,  according  to  the  classifications  of 
psychology,  consists  of  intellect,  sensibility,  and  will ;  which  of  these 
have  to  do  with  the  education  of  the  pupil  in  Mr.  Spencer's  opinion? 

7.  In  what  way  is  a  child  affected  by  knowing  what  his  father  likes 
and  dislikes  ? 

8.  How  do  you  account  for  this  ? 

9.  Apply  your  conclusions  to  Mr.  Spencer's  theory  of  education. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE   END   OF   ELEMENTARY    EDUCATION. 

"Life  is  so  strange,'*  says  an  old  song;  and  few  things 
about  it  are  stranger  than  the  conflict  between  the  demands 
of  the  intellect  and  the  exigencies  of  practical  life.  The 
theoretically  desirable  is  so  rarely  the  practically  possible  ! 
Theoretically  it  would  seem  that  we  ought  to  spend  our 
lives  in  reflection,  the  contemplation  of  beauty,  and  so  on ; 
practically  we  have  to  measure  calico,  wash  dishes,  and  hoe 
corn.  Theoretically  it  would  appear  that  every  one  ought 
to  have  money  and  capacity  enough  to  get  a  thorough  uni- 
versity education  ;  as  a  matter  of  fact  from  ninety  to 
ninety-five  per  cent  of  our  children  never  get  beyond  the 
elementary  school,  and  the  remarkable  thing  is  that  the 
capacity  and  the  pecuniary  circumstances  of  many  of  them 
probably  make  it  undesirable  for  them  to  go  farther. 

Material  and  Intellectual  Needs.  —  This  fact  must  exer- 
cise a  controlling  influence  in  determining  the  purpose  of 
elementary  education.  Mr.  Booker  T.  Washington  wisely 
insists  that  the  crying  need  of  his  race  is  industrial  educa- 
tion, an  education  that  will  improve  the  material  condition 
of  the  negro.  If  a  conflict  could  arise  between  the  mate- 
rial and  the  spiritual  needs  of  our  elementary  pupils,  if  it 
were  necessary  for  us  to  choose  between  a  sacrifice  of  the 
training  that  looks  toward  the  earning  of  a  living  and  that 
which   lays   emphasis  on  the   cultivation  of  the  mind,  it 

98 


THE  END  OF  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 


99 


would  be  necessary  for  us  to  give  up  the  latter,  paradoxical 
as  it  may  seem.  The  paradox,  however,  is  only  in  seem- 
ing. The  great  soul  of  a  Socrates  may  devote  itself  to  the 
supreme  ends  of  life  unhindered  by  poor  food,  shabby 
clothing,  and  bare  feet.  But  a  reasonable  supply  of  the 
material  needs  of  life  is  indispensable  in  the  case  of  the 
average  man  if  he  is  to  give  any  considerable  attention  to 
things  spiritual.  The  apparent  sacrifice,  in  the  supposed 
case  of  the  needs  of  the  mind,  would  be  for  the  sake  of 
mind.  It  would  be  made  in  order  that  a  foundation  might 
be  laid  for  the  higher,  nobler  life. 

In  fact,  however,  there  is  no  such  conflict.  The  ele- 
mentary school  certainly  renders  material  assistance  in  the 
earning  of  a  livelihood.  It  enables  those  who  have  attended 
it  to  read,  and  thereby  inform  themselves  in  relation  to 
matters  of  pecuniary  interest  to  them.  It  teaches  them 
writing  and  arithmetic.  It  empowers  them  to  reason  more 
logically  and  therefore  so  to  modify  tradition  and  custom  as 
to  bring  their  lives  more  and  more  into  harmony  with  the 
truth  of  things. 

Moral  Causes  of  Poverty.  —  It  is  not  in  these  ways,  how- 
ever, that  the  elementary  school  finds  its  best  opportunity 
to  help  its  pupils  in  a  pecuniary  way.  The  poorest  people 
are  not  poor  because  of  a  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  three 
R's.  They  are  poor  because  they  are  lacking  in  self-respect, 
thrift,  perseverance,  and  reliability.  Their  poverty  is  due 
to  moral  rather  than  to  intellectual  causes.  The  education 
that  seeks  to  raise  men  in  a  purely  material  way  must  lay 
great  emphasis  on  moral  questions.  It  must  develop  the 
power  to  forego  the  pleasures  of  to-day  for  the  sake  of  the 
good  of  to-morrow,     Frugality,  perseverance,  honesty,  reli^- 


lOO  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

bility,  consideration  for  others,  uprightness,  are  the  qualities 
that  count  for  most  in  the  earning  of  a  livelihood.  The 
education  that  neglects  to  emphasize  them  for  the  sake  of 
a  purely  intellectual  training,  because  of  the  supposed 
necessity  of  the  latter  to  the  earning  of  a  livelihood,  is  a 
cruel  mistake,  an  almost  criminal  blunder.  An  employee 
who  can  be  trusted  is  rarely  without  a  position  even  though 
he  is  not  above  the  average  of  his  fellows  in  ability.  But 
the  bright,  clever  man  whom  you  are  afraid  to  leave  alone, 
who  is  a  tremendous  worker  when  you  are  looking  at  him 
—  who  will  employ  him  except  as  a  last  resort  ? 

Intellectual  and  Moral    Training    Compatible It   is, 

however,  entirely  erroneous  to  suppose  that  there  is  any 
incompatibility  between  the  intellectual  training  that  bears 
on  the  earning  of  a  livelihood  and  the  more  important 
moral  training.  There  is  no  reason  why,  in  teaching  a  boy 
to  read,  we  should  not  make  use  of  such  selections  as  he 
needs  in  the  interests  of  his  moral  nature.  We  may  put 
into  the  hands  of  the  beginner  such  thrilling  stories  as, 
"  This  is  a  rat ;  this  is  a  cat :  the  cat  will  catch  the  rat." 
But  we  may  also  put  into  his  hands  stories  that  he  will 
care  to  read  lor  their  own  sakes,  stories  that  he  should 
read  if  he  had  no  body  to  provide  for.  We  may  indeed 
fill  our  arithmetics  with  problems  having  relation  to 
nothing  but  money,  as  though  the  only  use  to  be  made  of 
a  knowledge  of  number  is  to  make  calculations  about 
money.  But  we  may  also  fill  them  with  problems  which 
tend  to  make  more  vivid  in  the  mind  of  the  child  those 
truths  upon  which  the  health  and  soundness  of  his  mental 
life  depend.  As  we  shall  see  in  detail  hereafter,  it  is 
precisely  the  latter  method  that  tends  mo3t  strongly  to 


THE   END   OF   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION.  lOI 

develop  that  desire  for  accuracy  which  is  so  essential  for 
practical  purposes  in  arithmetical  calculations.  Give  a 
boy  a  problem  dealing  with  purely  imaginary  conditions, 
and  it  does  not  seem  to  him  to  matter  whether  he  gets  the 
correct  result  or  not,  provided  he  uses  the  right  principle ; 
give  him  a  problem  dealing  with  practical  affairs,  and  he 
will  have  a  desire  to  reach  the  correct  conclusion,  because 
it  will  represent  not  a  hypothetical  but  an  actual  case. 

No  Conflict  Between  the  Needs  of  the  Citizen  and  of  the 
Man.  —  Nor  is  there  any  conflict  between  the  needs  of  the 
boy  as  a  citizen  and  his  needs  as  a  human  being.  The 
same  knowledge  of  his  country's  history  which  the  Ameri- 
can finds  requisite  as  a  citizen  he  also  requires  as  a  human 
being.  We  know  what  he  must  have  as  a  man :  it  is  that 
which  will  give  him  right  ideals  of  life,  that  which  will 
make  him  charitable  and  sympathetic,  that  which  will  en- 
able him  to  see  the  tragedy  and  the  comedy  that  lurk  be- 
hind the  deeds  of  commonplace  men.  These  are  precisely 
the  things  he  must  have  as  an  American.  We  hear  a 
good  deal  nowadays  in  depreciation  of  patriotism.  Nov- 
elists like  Hall  Caine  and  moralists  like  TolstoT  vie  with 
each  other  in  teaching  that  patriotism  is  an  obsolete  virtue 
—  if  indeed  it  ever  was  a  virtue —  whose  place  ought  to  be 
taken  by  philanthropy.  They  might  argue  with  just  as 
much  reason  that  philanthropy  should  take  the  place  of 
parental  affection.  There  are  indeed  fathers  who  commit 
crimes  for  the  sake  of  their  children,  as  there  are  citizens 
who  say,  "  My  country,  may  she  be  right ;  but  right  or 
wrong,  my  country.*'  But  as  the  best  father  is  he  who 
realizes  that  he  is  kindest  to  his  children  when  he  is  most 
upright,  so  the  truest  patriot  is  he  who  loves  his  country  so 


I02     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

devotedly  as  to  feel  a  stain  upon  its  honor  as  a  personal 
matter.  When  John  Quincy  Adams  said,  No  true-hearted 
American  can  read  the  account  of  our  dealings  with 
Mexico  without  blushing  with  shame  for  his  country,  he 
spoke  not  only  as  a  philanthropist,  but  as  a  patriot.  If, 
then,  we  may  conclude  that  there  is  no  conflict  in  the 
elementary  school  between  the  demands  of  a  liberal  educa- 
tion and  those  of  an  education  for  the  sake  of  the  body, 
that  the  best  education  is,  as  far  as  it  goes,  a  liberal  educa- 
tion, we  may  inquire  what  elements  of  a  liberal  education 
the  elementary  school  ought  to  give. 

!  A  Liberal  Education  and  the  Elementary  School.  —  A 
liberal  education,  as  we  should  define  it,  is  one  that  keeps 
in  constant  view  those  ends  about  which  so  much  has 
already  been  said  —  thought,  the  appreciation  of  beauty, 
loyalty  to  duty,  affection,  sympathy,  etc.  Can  the  liberal 
education  of  the  elementary  school  intelligently  have  all 
these  things  in  view  ?  As  to  all  of  them  except  the  first 
there  can  be  no  possible  question.  That  a  very  young 
child  can  be  made  to  see  beauty,  that  he  can  be  touched 
with  a  sense  of  duty,  that  he  can  be  made  to  feel  the  joys 
of  sympathy  and  affection,  is  beyond  doubt.  And  there  is 
just  as  little  doubt  as  to  the  first.  Aristotle  indeed 
declared  that  children,  like  slaves,  are  incapable  of  the 
exercise  of  reason.  Of  the  reasonings  of  the  full-grown 
philosopher  of  course  they  are.  But  of  such  an  exercise 
of  reason  as  leads  to  wonder  they  certainly  are  not.  The 
stupendous  acquisitions  of  the  child  during  the  first  three 
years  of  his  life  —  acquisitions  which  surpass  in  amount,  so 
some  assert,  those  that  are  made  in  any  three  subsequent 
years  —  are  due  to  the  extraordinary  activity  of  his  mind. 


THE   END   OF   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 


103 


It  would  be  hard  to  draw  the  Une  between  that  feeling  of 
wonder  that  fills  the  mind  of  the  child  as  he  apprehends 
day  by  day  some  new  phase  of  the  mystery  of  the  world, 
and  that  sense  of  awe  that  filled  the  mind  of  Kant  as  he 
contemplated  the  starry  heavens.  If  the  full-blown  flower 
has  the  supreme  fragrance  and  sweetness  which  Aristotle 
attributed  to  it,  surely  the  young  plant  just  putting  forth 
its  tender  leaves  deserves  to  be  treated  with  the  utmost 
care. 

We  may  then  sum  up  our  conclusions  as  follows : 
Elementary  education,  in  all  its  phases,  should  have  con- 
stantly in  view  those  things  that  make  life  worth  living. 
But  it  should  seek  to  attain  them  by  teaching  the  pupil 
those  arts  and  having  him  study  those  subjects  which  he 
will  need  as  a  bread-earner  and  a  citizen. 

QUESTIONS   ON  THE  TEXT. 

1.  Why  does  Booker  Washington  advocate  industrial  education 
for  the  negro  ? 

2.  Why  is  poverty  often  due  to  moral  causes  ? 

3.  Show  that  the  intellectual  training  which  bears  on  the  earning 
of  a  livelihood  is  compatible  with  moral  training. 

4.  Show  that  there  is  no  conflict  between  the  needs  of  the  citizen 
and  the  man. 

5.  Reply  to  Hall  Caine's  argument  against  patriotism. 

6.  What  is  a  liberal  education  ? 

7.  In  what  sense  may  the  elementary  school  give  a  liberal  educa- 
tion? 

SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS. 

1.  Because  poverty  is  due  to  moral  causes,  are  we  justified  in 
teaching  that  a  dishonest  man  cannot  get  rich? 

2.  In  what  sense  is  it  true  that  honesty  is  the  best  policy  ? 

3.  Who  is  the  true  patriot,  the  man  who  always  defends  his  coun- 


I04     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

try,  or  the  man  who  condemns  her  under  circumstances  which  would 
lead  him  to  condemn  another  country? 

4.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  education  which  the  ele- 
mentary school  ought  to  give,  and  that  which  the  high  school  and 
college  should  seek  to  impart? 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL:    GENERAL. 

Begin  with  the  Child. —  It  has  come  to  be  an  axiom  in 
pedagogy  that  we  must  begin  with  the  child.  The  pro- 
fessor of  physics  who  introduced  his  course  of  lectures  by 
saying,  "  A  rearrangement  of  the  courses  of  study  deprived 
you  of  the  usual  instruction  in  elementary  physics  ;  that 
is  your  misfortune,  and  not  my  fault,"  *  and  at  once  began 
his  lectures  on  advanced  physics,  may  have  known  his 
subject,  but  he  was  ignorant  of  pedagogy.  The  faintest 
glimmer  of  that  science  would  have  shown  him  that  the 
rearrangement  of  the  course  of  study  had  of  necessity 
rearranged  his  work,  that  the  attempt  to  lecture  on  ad- 
vanced physics  to  students  who  are  not  familiar  with  its 
elementary  concepts  would  only  result  in  confusion. 

We  must  begin  with  the  pupil  not  only  in  that  we  must 
adapt  our  instruction  to  his  intellectual  conditions,  but  in 
that  we  must  take  his  interests  into  account.  As  has  already 
been  stated,  this  book  is  based  on  the  assumption  that 
neither  the  duties  of  the  boy  in  school  nor  of  the  man  in  the 
world  can  always  be  as  interesting  as  any  other  occupation. 
But  it  does  not  therefore  follow  that  the  teacher  shall  deliber- 
ately seek  to  create  situations  in  which  his  pupils  must 
exert  their  will-power.  On  the  contrary,  at  every  stage  of 
a  child's  development  his  work  should  be  brought  into  the 
closest  possible  relation  with  his  life  and  interests,  in  order 

1  Schaefer's  Thinking,  p.  52. 

105 


I06     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

that  it  may  have  for  him  the  utmost  possible  amount  of 
attractiveness.  The  interests  that  make  for  education  are 
always  obliged  to  compete  with  those  that  tend  to  array 
the  individual  against  society  as  well  as  his  own  best  self. 
Since  the  anarchical  interests  are  likely  to  prevail  unless 
the  will  throws  its  weight  into  the  lighter  scale,  the  teacher 
is  under  supreme  obligation  to  make  those  that  tend  to 
promote  the  child's  good  as  strong  as  possible. 

The  Young  Child  and  the  Educated  Man While  this 

principle  should  be  recognized  by  teachers  of  every  grade 
from  the  university  professor  down,  it  applies  with  peculiar 
force  to  the  elementary  teacher.  The  mature  student  can 
see  the  reason  for  all  that  is  demanded  of  him,  and  he 
ought  to  be  able  to  pursue  the  course  which  reason  points 
out,  even  though  appetite  and  inclination  lead  the  other 
way.  But  the  young  child  has  neither  the  power  to  see 
nor  the  will  to  do  what  his  own  best  self  requires.  Abso- 
lutely helpless  in  the  beginning,  with  no  guide  but  blind 
instincts,  and  these  not  sufficiently  developed  to  insure 
even  his  physical  self-preservation,  he  should  be  so  trained 
that  when  the  education  of  the  school  is  finished  the  work 
of  self-education  may  go  on.  Life  itself  is  a  school,  and 
the  ideal  of  education  in  the  narrower  sense  is  that  parent 
first  and  later  parent  and  teacher  may  so  do  their  work 
that  when  the  student  passes  from  their  control  he  may 
become  his  own  teacher,  may  intelligently  direct  his  own 
life.  Evidently  the  motives  which  should  be  all-powerful 
in  the  end  —  those  growing  out  of  purely  rational  consid- 
erations —  are  entirely  wanting  in  the  beginning ;  evidently, 
also,  the  motives  which  are  alone  possible  in  the  begin- 
ning —  those  that  in  some  form  make  an  appeal  to  the 


THE  CHILD'S   CAPITAL:   GENERAL. 


107 


child's  immediate  interest  —  should  be  entirely  in  abeyance 
at  the  end.  The  college  or  university  student  should  not 
do  things  merely  because  they  may  have  an  immediate 
interest  for  him.  As  the  carpenter  does  not  put  a  window 
here  or  a  bracket  there  to  suit  his  fancy,  as  he  is  governed 
in  everything  that  he  does  by  the  plan  of  the  house,  so  the 
advanced  student,  having  formed  an  ideal  of  life,  should  do 
this  or  refrain  from  that,  not  because  of  its  immediate 
interest,  but  because  of  its  bearing  on  his  life-plan. 

The  ideal  education  is  that  which,  keeping  this  goal  con- 
stantly in  mind,  demands  of  the  child  at  every  stage  of  his 
development  those  requirements  that  tend  to  lead  most 
directly  and  certainly  to  it.  Exactly  what  these  require- 
ments should  be,  educational  science  will  never  be  able  to 
say.  Children  are  not  like  geometrical  figures.  When 
you  know  the  properties  of  one  right-angled  triangle  you 
know  the  properties  of  all  of  them.  But  when  you  have 
found  out  how  to  treat  one  child  of  seven  you  do  not 
know  how  to  treat  another  of  the  same  age,  because  the 
second  may  be  unlike  the  first  in  very  important  particu- 
lars. All  that  educational  science  can  do  is  to  lay  down 
certain  general  principles,  leaving  their  application  to  the 
tact  of  the  trained  teacher,  guided  indeed  by  his  knowledge 
of  children  in  general. 

The  Child  Guided  by  Interest. —  One  principle  that 
should  govern  the  mother  in  the  treatment  of  her  very 
young  child  is  clear :  she  should  expect  nothing  from  his 
reason.  So  far  as  she  aims  to  control  his  conduct  she 
must  make  some  sort  of  appeal  to  his  immediate  interests. 
Dr.  Hinsdale  said  that  only  two  things  might  be  said  with 
certainty  of  the  young  child :  "  He  is  sure  to  have  many 


I08  A   BROADER  ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

interests  in  the  course  of  the  day,  and  none  of  them  will 
continue  long."  ^  One  thing  more  may  be  said  of  him : 
so  far  as  he  is  left  to  himself  he  will  do  nothing  except 
what  interests  him.  But  long  before  he  is  old  enough  to 
go  to  school  he  has  learned  that  some  of  his  interests 
ought  not  to  have  play.  He  likes  to  dabble  in  the  water : 
he  has  learned  that  that  may  result  in  a  spanking  and  a 
cold.  He  likes  to  shout  and  make  a  big  noise :  he  has 
learned  that  his  boisterousness  must  be  held  in  check 
when  his  baby  brother  is  asleep. 

Habits  of  Rational  Conduct.  —  The  wise  mother  will 
not  expect  her  child  to  do  what  is  reasonable  from  a  sense 
of  duty.  Her  task  is  to  see  that  it  is  done,  and  done,  too, 
under  the  influence  of  the  least  degree  of  compulsion. 
Making  her  child  acquainted  so  far  as  possible  with  the 
reason  for  her  requirements,  she  nevertheless  knows  that 
other  motives  —  the  desire  to  please  her,  fear  of  punish- 
ment, etc. — will  for  the  most  part  control  his  conduct. 
She  knows  that  the  impulse  to  do  what  is  seen  to  be 
reasonable  is  too  feeble  to  direct  his  actions.  But  pre- 
cisely because  she  realizes  the  incomparable  worth  and 
significance  of  this  motive,  because  she  knows  that  every- 
thing depends  on  so  nuturing  it  and  strengthening  it 
that  it  may  grow  and  grow  until  it  becomes  the  control- 
ling force  in  the  life  of  her  child,  she  will  develop  in  him 
habits  of  right  conduct,  and  as  far  as  possible  make  him 
see  their  reasonableness.  The  nearer  the  conduct  of  the 
child,  for  whatever  reason,  conforms  to  what  the  child 
sees  to  be  reasonable,  the  more  natural  it  is  for  him  to 
dwell  on  the  fact  that  he  is  acting  rationally,  and  the  more 
^  Hinsdale's  Art  of  Study,  p.  141. 


THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL;  GENERAL.  109 

the  desire  so  to  act  tends  to  gain  in  power.  But  it  is  evi- 
dent  that  a  habit  of  right  conduct  formed  through  fear  of 
punishment  is  less  likely  to  leave  the  mind  free  to  dwell 
on  the  intrinsic  reasonableness  of  the  conduct  than  one 
formed  through  affection  for  the  mother.  The  impulse  to 
act  rationally  and  the  desire  to  please  those  we  love  are 
higher  than  the  wish  to  avoid  punishment.  The  child 
whose  conduct  is  governed  through  affection  for  parent  or 
teacher  is  strengthening  at  the  same  time  his  tendency  to 
do  what  seems  to  him  reasonable  ;  the  child,  on  the  other 
hand,  who  does  what  is  right  in  order  to  avoid  punishment 
is  in  great  danger  of  doing  what  is  wrong  as  soon  as  he  can 
do  so  with  impunity.  It  follows  that  conduct  regulated 
only  by  fear  of  punishment  is  rarely  stimulated  by  the  im- 
pulse to  do  what  is  reasonable  just  because  it  is  reasonable. 
So  far  the  principle  that  should  control  the  mother  has 
been  dwelt  upon.  This  has  been  done  for  two  reasons  : 
(i)  the  best  way  to  realize  the  proper  method  of  dealing  with 
the  child  at  school  is  to  contrast  the  influences  that  abso- 
lutely determine  his  conduct  at  the  beginning  of  his  educa- 
tion with  those  by  which  he  should  be  guided  in  the  end ; 
and  (2)  the  same  principle  that  ought  to  control  the 
mother  in  the  treatment  of  her  child  at  home  ought  to 
govern  the  teacher  in  her  treatment  of  the  child  at  school. 
If  the  child,  at  first  governed  by  blind,  unconscious  impulse, 
and  later  by  some  form  of  immediate  interest,  is  to  be 
developed  into  a  being  who  will  be  governed  in  what  he 
does  by  purely  rational  considerations,  then  the  problem 
for  teacher  and  parent  is :  How  to  make  such  an  appeal  to 
the  child's  immediate  interests  as  will  take  him  most  surely 
to  the  goal  in  which  reason,  not  impulse  and  inclination, 
will  be  the  ruling  principle  of  his  life.     And  while  it  has 


no     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

been  implied  all  along  that  no  influence  can  be  exerted 
upon  the  child  that  does  not  make  some  sort  of  appeal  to 
his  immediate  interests,  the  intention  has  been  to  indicate 
with  equal  clearness  that  these  immediate  interests  cannot 
always  be  the  sort  that  grow  out  of  the  thing  we  wish  him 
to  do.  A  child  may  make  his  own  multiplication  table 
because  he  likes  to  do  it.  In  that  case  his  conduct  grows 
out  of  an  immediate  interest  in  his  work.  But  when  he 
learns  the  table  by  heart,  he  does  it  because  the  teacher 
requires  it.  Here  again  he  acts  from  an  immediate  inter- 
est, but  not  from  one  growing  out  of  what  he  does.  He 
wishes,  it  may  be,  to  please  the  teacher,  or  to  get  a  good 
mark,  or  to  avoid  punishment.  Some  form  of  immediate 
interest  he  must  have.  But  no  amount  of  pedagogical 
skill  can  bring  it  to  pass  that  this  interest  shall  so  grow  out 
of  the  work  to  be  done  that  if  the  child  were  capable  of 
analyzing  his  motives,  he  would  say  he  did  it  because  he 
liked  it.  Emphasis  is  laid  upon  this  point  because  in  the 
opinion  of  the  author  it  should  be  a  determining  factor  in 
all  the  teacher's  work.  Important  as  it  is  that  the  work 
of  the  school  should  be  made  as  interesting  as  possible, 
something  else  is  even  more  important :  that  the  child  and 
the  man  should  do  their  proper  work  whether  it  be  the 
most  interesting  thing  or  not. 

The  Educational  Centre  of  Gravity Returning  now  to 

the  point  made  at  the  beginning  of  the  chapter,  we  repeat 
that,  so  far  as  possible,  the  work  of  the  school  should  be 
adapted  to  the  child's  interests.  How  adapted  ?  In  the 
sense  that  he  shall  be  set  doing  things  which  he  likes  to 
do,  things  the  doing  of  which  takes  him  toward  the  goal  of 
education.     We  must  make  the  child  himself,  his  tastes, 


THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL:   GENERAL.  m 

his  interests,  the  centre  of  gravity.^  Governed  as  we  all 
are  to  a  great  extent  by  tradition,  we  find  it  hard  to  cut 
loose  from  the  idea  that  the  thing  to  do  when  a  child  en- 
ters school  is  to  put  a  book  into  his  hands.  This  was  the 
idea  of  the  Renaissance,  the  period  which  identified  educa- 
tion with  learning,  and  which  therefore  paid  little  heed  to 
the  child  because  he  had  so  little  capacity  to  learn  the 
things  that  the  Renaissance  teacher  thought  important. 
Under  the  influence  of  that  mode  of  thought  we  have  been 
sending  the  child's  body  to  school,  leaving  his  mind  to  look 
out  for  itself.^  And  many  who  have  come  to  see  that, 
since  it  is  the  child's  mind  we  must  deal  with,  we  must 
take  its  impulses  into  account,  are  still  so  dominated  by 
Renaissance  theories  that  they  do  not  realize  that  the  child 
has  any  impulses  of  which  the  school  should  take  note 
except  those  of  a  purely  intellectual  character.  As  the 
Renaissance  teacher  neglected  every  power  of  the  mind 
except  memory,  so  these  teachers  neglect  all  his  powers 
and  tendencies  except  memory  and  curiosity.  The  inces- 
santly active  child,  the  talkative  child,  the  child  pulling 
things  to  pieces  and  putting  them  together  again,  has  been 
ignored,  suppressed,  taken  no  account  of.  Observe  any 
child.  Does  he  sit  on  your  knee  and  ask  you  questions  by 
the  hour  ?  Is  he  curiosity  personified  ?  That  is  what  he 
must  be  if  the  methods  that  prevail  in  many  primary 
schools  are  right.  But  though  he  has  curiosity,  that  is 
not  his  only  trait ;  in  normal  cases  it  is  not  his  predomi- 
nant trait.  If  we  are  to  make  him  the  centre  around 
which  the  work  of  the  school  revolves,  we  must  get  rid 
of  the  Renaissance  fallacy  and,  with  the  simple  desire  to 
find  out  the  truth,  inquire  how  we  can  invest  the  child's 

1  The  figure  is  Dr.  Dewey's.      2  Cf.  Dr.  Dewey's  School  and  Society. 


112  A  BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

capital,^  his  interests,  his  impulses,  so  that  they  may  bring 
him  the  largest  return. 

As  a  preliminary  to  finding  an  answer  to  this  question 
we  must  ascertain  what  these  interests  are.  And  it  may 
serve  to  give  us  a  deeper  appreciation  of  the  importance  of 
our  question  to  remember  that  there  was  a  time  when  the 
purely  intellectual  interests  which  alone  we  are  inclined  to 
take  account  of  were  almost  ignored.  The  men  of  the 
world  of  the  first  half  of  the  Middle  Ages  thought  chiefly 
of  action  and  of  the  impulses  that  lead  to  it.  Perhaps 
they  were  not  entirely  wrong.  Let  us  then  marshal  the 
child's  interests  before  us  so  that  we  may  see  how  they 
can  be  turned  to  account  in  his  education. 

Curiosity.  —  It  is  unnecessary  to  do  more  than  mention 
the  child's  intellectual  interests,  his  curiosity,  his  impulse 
towards  better  cognition,  as  Professor  James  terms  it.  As 
has  already  been  said,  this  is  the  chief  impulse  to  which 
the  work  of  most  so-called  good  primary  schools  make 
direct  appeal. 

The    Constructive    Impulse Closely   connected   with 

this  is  the  child's  constructive  impulse.  A  little  girl  of 
seven,  after  burying  herself  for  hours  in  a  child's  history 
of  the  United  States,  put  her  book  down  and  asked  for  a 
blanket.  She  had  been  reading  about  Indians  and  she 
wanted  to  give  objective  expression  to  some  of  the  ideas 
she  had  acquired.  She  got  a  feather  and  stuck  it  in  her 
hat,  and  asked  her  father  to  help  her  build  a  wigwam.  In 
the  early  years  of  a  child's  life  this  impulse  plays  a  vitally 
important  part.     As  Professor   James  says,  "Up  to  the 

I  This  phrase  is  Dr.  Dewey  V 


THE   CHILD »S    CAPITAL:  GENERAL. 


113 


eighth  or  ninth  year  the  child  does  hardly  anything  else 
than  handle  objects,  explore  things  with  his  hands,  doing 
and  undoing,  setting  up  and  knocking  down,  putting 
together  and  pulling  apart ;  for,  from  the  psychological 
point  of  view,  construction  and  destruction  are  two  names 
for  the  same  manual  activity."  ^ 

The  gratification  of  the  constructive  impulse  forms  a 
large  part  of  the  play  of  children.  Indeed,  if  we  define 
play  as  activity  in  which  the  child  engages  because  he 
likes  it,  we  may  say  that  whatever  children  do  through  the 
constructive  impulse  is  play.  "  They  build  their  sand 
castles,  they  pretend  to  keep  shop,  to  entertain  visitors, 
and  so  forth,  for  the  sake  of  the  enjoyment  they  find  in 
these  activities."  ^ 

The  Art  Impulse.  —  Such  activities  become  modified  at 
a  very  early  period  in  the  life  of  the  child  by  the 
art  impulse  —  another  of  the  common  characteristics  of 
children.  A  child  of  three  will  sometimes  throw  down  his 
toys  and  listen  to  the  reading  of  an  abstract  essay. 
Because  he  understands  it  ?  Certainly  not ;  it  is  because 
the  cadence  of  the  sentences  pleases  his  aesthetic  sense. 
Miss  Shinn  observed  that  her  niece  in  her  twenty-eighth 
month  showed  a  special  fondness  for  daffodils.  As  soon 
as  the  passive  appreciation  of  beauty  becomes  a  part  of  the 
child's  life,  it  begins  to  modify  the  activity  of  the  con- 
structive impulse.  The  child  endeavors  to  make  his  crea- 
tions conform  to  his  ideas  of  beauty. 

The   Social  Impulse In   gratifying   his    constructive 

tendency  the  child  acts  for  the  sake  of  acting.     You  who 
1  James,  Talks  to  Teachers,  p.  58.     2  Sully,  Studies  in  Childhood,  p.  34. 


114  ^    BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

observe  what  he  is  doing  can  tell  what  is  passing  through 
his  mind.  But  it  is  not  for  your  sake  that  he  is  acting. 
He  does  what  he  does  because  he  likes  to  do  it.  The 
activities  due  to  the  social  impulse,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
directly  stimulated  by  the  presence  of  other  people. 
Observe  any  child  in  a  home  where  the  maxim  that 
children  should  be  seen,  not  heard,  is,  as  it  ought  to  be, 
disregarded.  When  he  reads  a  story,  he  wants  to  tell  it 
to  his  mother  ;  when  he  comes  in  from  a  walk,  he  is  eager 
to  tell  her  all  that  he  has  seen  that  interests  him.  When 
a  story  is  told  in  his  presence,  he  insists  on  correcting 
every  inaccurate  statement. 

Imitation.  —  Half-way  between  the  constructive  impulse 
and  the  social  is  the  disposition  to  imitate.  Indeed  the  con- 
structive impulse  and  the  imitative,  as  far  as  the  latter  acts 
unconsciously,  are  bottomed  on  the  same  law  —  that  every 
idea  tends  to  act  itself  out.  The  child  who  wished  to 
make  a  wigwam  after  reading  about  Indians  did  so  because 
the  ideas  were  in  her  mind,  and  the  child  who  imitates  the 
gestures  of  her  mother  does  so  for  the  same  reason. 

But  when  the  imitative  impulse  becomes  conscious, 
when  the  child  tries  to  reproduce  the  action  of  another 
because  he  wishes  to  be  like  the  other,  then  the  imitative 
tendency  becomes  allied  to  the  social.  It  is  the  social 
impulse  turned  other  end  foremost.  As  the  child's  social 
nature  leads  him  to  influence  the  minds  of  others  by  tell- 
ing them  what  he  knows,  so  his  imitative  impulse  leads  to 
a  modification  of  his  own  mind  through  the  influence  of 
others.  It  is  this  that  gives  it  tremendous  significance. 
It  tends,  as  Dr.  Harris  says,  to  emancipate  the  child  from 
the  mere  influence  of  heredity  and  self-regarding  impulses 


THE    CHILD'S   CAPITAL:  GENERAL. 


"5 


and  bring  him  under  the  influence  of  those  around  him. 
It  Hcs  at  the  foundation  of  manners,  language,  the  whole 
of  the  traditional  side  of  life.  Imitation,  the  conserva- 
tion of  achievements,  and  invention,  making  new  dis- 
coveries, are,  as  Professor  James  says,  "  the  two  legs  on 
which  the  human  race  historically  has  walked." 

Invention. —  Invention  is  due  to  the  combination  of  two 
impulses,  one  of  which  is  always  the  intellectual  impulse, 
while  the  other  may  vary  with  the  subject-matter  to  which 
the  desire  to  know  is  related.  The  latter  impulse  may 
lead  a  university  student  to  study  municipal  government ; 
but  unless  he  is  moved  by  ambition,  philanthropy,  patriot- 
ism, regard  for  his  family,  or  some  extraneous  motive,  he 
will  not  use  his  knowledge  for  the  betterment  of  govern- 
ment. It  is  said  that  a  well-known  professor  in  this  coun- 
try is  breaking  himself  down  by  his  excessive  study  of  the 
laws  of  health.  His  regard  for  health  is  not  as  intense  as 
his  desire  to  know  its  laws.  But  even  in  his  case  those 
who  know  him  well  are  doubtless  able  to  see  that  his  knowl- 
edge of  hygiene  leads  to  some  modification  of  his  actions. 

Emulation. —  Closely  akin  to  the  imitative  impulse  is 
the  emulative.  In  one  of  its  forms  the  only  difference 
between  them  is  that  of  emphasis.  "I  wish  to  be  like  him** 
expresses  the  conscious  imitative  impulse.  "  I  wish  to  be 
not  inferior  to  him  "  expresses  one  form  of  the  emulative 
impulse.  In  the  one  case  attention  is  concentrated  on  the 
person  one  desires  to  imitate ;  in  the  other,  it  is  self -regard- 
ing. The  emotional  coloring  of  the  one  impulse  is  admira- 
tion ;  of  the  other,  the  dislike  of  inferiority.  This  dislike 
easily  develops  into  a  desire  for  superiority. 


Il6     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

The  self-regarding  character  of  emulation  very  clearly 
allies  it  with  the  combative,  aggressive  tendency  of  the 
child,  the  disposition  to  compel  the  people  and  things  that 
surround  him  to  submit  to  his  will. 

The  Ethical  Impulse.  —  The  child  also  exhibits  at  a 
quite  early  age  what  we  may  call  the  ethical  impulse,  the 
desire  to  do  right.  Precisely  what  this  impulse  is,  and 
how  it  originates,  are  questions  that  educational  science 
does  not  have  to  solve.  All  we  need  to  note  here  is  that 
in  the  course  of  his  experience  the  child  becomes  con- 
scious of  a  desire  to  do  right ;  that  this  desire  is  unique, 
incapable  of  being  analyzed  into  anything  else,  and  that,  as 
we  have  elsewhere  tried  to  show,  it  ought  to  be  developed 
so  that  it  shall  become  the  ruling  principle  of  his  life. 

The  instinct  of  ownership,  the  craving  for  approbation, 
the  feeling  of  shyness,  the  dislike  of  pain,  are  so  mani- 
festly universal  traits  that  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  mention 
them. 

So,  as  has  been  said,  these  various  impulses  upon  which 
we  have  dwelt  in  the  foregoing  pages  constitute  the 
"child's  capital."  In  what  way  can  it  be  most  profitably 
invested  for  him  ? 


QUESTIONS   ON   THE   TEXT. 

1.  What  is  meant  by  the  title  of  this  chapter? 

2.  In  what  did  the  mistake  of  the  professor  who  was  lecturing  on 
physics,  consist  ? 

3.  "The  interests  that  make  for  education  must  compete  with 
those  that  tend  to  array  the  individual  against  society."     Explain. 

4.  Why  is  the  primary  teacher  under  peculiar  obligations  to  take 
account  of  the  child's  interests  ? 

5.  Contrast  the  pupil  at  the  beginning  of  his  education  with  what 
he  should  be  at  the  end. 


THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL:  GENERAL.  ny 

6.  What  is  meant  by  "  habits  of  rational  conduct "  ? 

7.  In  what  sense  should  we  make  the  child  the  centre  of  gravity? 

8.  Illustrate  from  your  own  observation  the  various  impulses  of 
the  child  which  are  mentioned  in  the  text. 


SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  If  the  child  had  the  capacity  to  understand,  and  were  destitute 
of  the  various  impulses  mentioned  in  the  text,  would  education  be 
possible  ? 

2.  What  does  the  text  mean  by  "some  form  of  immediate  in- 
terest"? 

3.  Show  that  the  teacher  cannot,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  exert 
any  influence  upon  the  child  save  as  he  appeals  to  some  form  of 
immediate  interest. 

4.  What  period  in  history  is  known  as  the  Renaissance  and  why  ? 

5.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  Renaissance  and  the  Re- 
vival of  Learning? 

6.  What  idea  of  education  prevailed  during  the  Renaissance  ? 

7.  What  writer  on  education  first  laid  stress  on  the  importance  of 
basing  all  our  work  on  the  child? 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL:   IMITATION. 

Professor  Baldwin  on  Imitation.  —  In  the  preceding 
chapter  we  laid  great  emphasis  on  the  importance  of  imita- 
tion in  the  development  of  the  child  and  of  the  race.  But 
prominent  as  is  the  r61e  there  assigned  it,  its  part  is  incon- 
spicuous in  comparison  with  that  which  seems  to  be 
claimed  for  it  by  some  writers.  Says  Professor  Baldwin  : 
"  The  prime  and  essential  method  of  the  child's  learning  is 
by  imitative  absorption  of  the  actions,  thoughts,  experiences 
of  other  people."  "Imitation  is  the  method  of  his  personal 
progress,  the  essential  method  of  his  growth.*'  **  Society, 
also,"  he  says,  "grows  by  imitative  generalizations  of  the 
thoughts  of  others.  Imitation  is  the  method  of  social  or- 
ganization." Gabriel  Tarde  asserts  the  same  doctrine  in 
an  even  less  qualified  form  :  "All  the  actions  of  men  in  so- 
ciety, from  the  satisfying  of  simple  organic  needs  to  the  in- 
ventions of  science  and  art,  are  the  outcome  of  imitation." 

Imitation  Defined. — Before  discussing  this  theory,  let  us 
determine  as  clearly  as  we  may  what  Professor  Baldwin 
understands  by  imitation.  He  says  there  are  three  kinds : 
organic  or  biological,  psychological,  and  plastic.  Organic 
imitation  he  defines  as  "  the  tendency  of  an  organism  to 
maintain,  repeat,  reproduce  its  own  stimulation,  be  it  simple 
contractility,  muscular  contraction,  or  selected  reactions 
which  have  become  habitual.  .  .  .  These  biological  imita- 

ii8 


THE  CHILD'S   CAPITAL:  IMITATION. 


119 


tions  are  evidently  first  in  order  of  development,  and 
represent  the  gains  or  accommodations  of  the  organism 
made  independently  of  the  conscious  reception  of  stimula- 
tions and  adaptations  to  them.**  In  psychological  or 
conscious  imitation  "  the  presence  of  a  copy  to  be  aimed 
at,  the  criterion  of  imitation,  is  here  fulfilled  in  the  form 
of  conscious  sensations  and  images/*  Plastic  imitation  is 
the  "  tendency  to  yield  to  the  impulse  or  emotion  of  con- 
formity to  social  usage.** 

Biological  Imitation.  —  With  Professor  Baldwin's  bio- 
logical imitation  this  book  has  nothing  to  do  except  to 
protest  against  the  use  of  a  psychological  term  to  describe 
biological  facts.  Outwardly  there  may  be  no  difference 
between  a  physical  fact  accompanied  by,  and  one  not  ac- 
companied by  consciousness.  But  inwardly  the  difference 
is  as  great  as  that  which  distinguishes  mind  from  body. 
To  ignore  this  vast  dissimilarity  by  using  the  same  term 
to  describe  both  phenomena  can  lead  only  to  confusion. 

Psychological  Imitation — His  psychological  imitation 
corresponds  pretty  closely  to  the  popular  use  of  the  term, 
and  will  therefore  doubtless  be  clear  without  illustration  or 
discussion. 

Plastic  Imitation.  —  Under  plastic  imitation  he  includes 
facts  which  are  the  result  of  imitation  and  facts  which  are 
not  due  to  any  kind  of  imitation  whatever.  He  thinks  that 
we  follow  the  fashion  *'  in  matters  of  dress,  arrangements 
for  social  functions,  such  as  calling,  announcements  of  en- 
gagements, marriage  cards,  funeral  customs  —  in  short,  in 
all  those  matters  in  which  we  ask,  'What  is  the  proper 
thing?*"  —  because  of  plastic  imitation.     Now  in  nearly 


I20  A    BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

every  one  of  these  particulars  a  sufficient  explanation  of 
our  conduct  is  our  unwillingness  to  appear  odd,  and  that  is 
accounted  for  by  our  love  of  approbation.  Men  do  not 
wear  shirt-waists  in  summer,  and  both  sexes  submit  to  a 
thousand  discomforts  and  absurdities  in  matters  of  dress 
because  of  their  dread  of  the  opinion  of  society.  The 
petty  and,  in  many  respects,  ridiculous  conventions  of  our 
artificial  social  system  are  submitted  to  for  the  same  rea- 
son. We  want  to  be  "in  society*'  because  thereby  we 
get,  or  imagine  we  do,  a  certain  amount  of  consideration ; 
and  this,  and  not  any  imitative  propensity,  is  our  reason 
for  conforming  to  the  rules  which  society  has  laid  down 
for  those  who  would  win  its  favor. 

Imitation  of  Thoughts  and  Feelings.  —  We  may  indeed 
dress  in  the  fashion  for  another  reason  :  because  it  seems 
to  us  beautiful.  That  acute  critic  and  profound  student  of 
human  nature  Walter  Bagehot  long  ago  pointed  out  that 
the  imitative  side  of  our  nature  extends  to  our  emotions ; 
in  other  words,  that  we  mechanically  adopt  the  Hkes,  dis- 
likes, opinions,  tastes,  etc.,  of  those  with  whom  we  associate. 
Thus  it  happens  that  a  particular  style  of  architecture, 
writing,  painting,  or  music  is  almost  universally  admired  in 
one  period,  and  another  in  another  period.  What  is  called 
the  contagion  of  emotion  is  due  to  the  same  cause.  As 
every  one  knows,  it  requires  an  exceptionally  strong  man 
to  "keep  his  head,'*  as  we  say,  in  an  intensely  excited 
crowd.  All  this  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  imitative 
side  of  our  nature  extends  to  our  emotions. 

Is  Education  Imitation?  —  Rejecting,  then,  Professor 
Baldwin's  biological  imitation  and  narrowing  the  scope  of 


THE   CHILD^S   CAPITAL:  IMITATION.  m 

his  plastic  imitation,  we  may  define  imitation  in  general  as 
the  tendency  to  do,  think,  or  feel  what  those  with  whom 
we  associate  are  doing,  thinking,  and  feeling.  So  con- 
ceiving it,  is  it  true  that  imitation  plays  the  part  in  the 
education  of  the  child  and  the  progress  of  society  that 
Professor  Baldwin  claims  for  it  ?  The  question  is  of  fun- 
damental importance ;  for  if  the  child  is  indebted  to  imita- 
tion for  his  entire  development,  if  society  has  made  all  its 
advances  from  savagery  through  imitation,  the  cause  of  the 
difference  between  one  man  and  another,  between  one 
community  and  another,  is  not  far  to  seek.  Were  imita- 
tion the  sole  factor  in  development,  all  that  education 
would  have  to  do  would  be  to  put  good  models  before  the 
growing  child.  What  we  call  an  educated  man,  a  good 
citizen,  a  useful  member  of  society,  would  be  merely  the 
result  of  patterning  after  those  models.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  educational  science  has  few  more  important  problems 
to  grapple  with  than  that  of  ascertaining  the  extent  to 
which,  and  the  limitations  under  which,  imitation  contrib- 
utes to  human  development. 

Education  Due  to  all  Our  Impulses.  —  The  solution  of 
the  problem  can  hardly  be  missed  by  those  who  accept  the 
conclusions  of  the  preceding  chapter.  It  was  there  set 
forth  that  the  child  is  not  an  imitative  creature  simply,  but 
an  emulative,  combative,  social,  intellectual,  and  construc- 
tive as  well  as  imitative  creature,  and  one  hardly  knows 
what  not  besides.  The  obvious  inference  from  this  is  that 
the  child  is  determined  in  his  development  by  the  inter- 
lacing and  interacting  of  all  his  impulses.  We  have  all 
heard  of  the  East  Indian  tailor  who,  when  he  was  given  a 
pair  of   trousers  as  a  model,  imitated  them  even  to  the 


122  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

extent  of  putting  a  patch  on  the  new  ones.  Why  is  this 
story  considered  worth  the  telling  ?  Because,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  ordinary  common-sense,  the  conduct  of 
the  East  Indian  was  abnormal,  and  its  abnormality  con- 
sisted precisely  in  the  fact  that  it  was  the  result  of  imita- 
tion pure  and  simple  —  of  imitation  not  modified  by 
intelligence.  As  in  such  cases  imitation  thus  unmodified 
is  abnormal,  so  in  some  others  it  is  abnormal  where  it 
exerts  any  influence  at  all. 

"Why,**  asks  Professor  Giddings,  "does  Maudsley  ven- 
ture to  say,  without  offering  the  slightest  proof,  that  while 
men  are  as  liable  as  silly  sheep  to  fall  into  panic  when 
they  see  panic  among  their  fellows,  they  are  not  similarly 
liable  when  they  see  panic  among  sheep  ?  Obviously  be- 
cause facts  of  this  general  character  are  so  familiar  that 
no  one  would  think  of  questioning  them."  In  like  manner, 
a  well-bred,  refined  boy  or  girl  has  little  tendency  to  imi- 
tate the  bad  manners  of  rude,  uncouth  people.  Professor 
Royce,  who,  like  Professor  Baldwin,  is  disposed  to  leave 
the  other  impulses  of  the  child  too  much  in  the  back- 
ground in  order  to  give  prominence  to  imitation,  says : 
"  Up  to  seven  or  eight  years  of  age,  any  normal  child  re- 
mains persistently,  although  perhaps  very  selectively,  imi- 
tative of  deeds,  of  habits,  of  games,  of  customs,  and  often 
of  highly  ideal  and  perhaps  quite  imaginary  models,  such 
as  are  suggested  to  it  by  fairy  stories  and  other  such 
material."  Why  selectively  imitative  ?  Evidently  because 
the  imitative  impulse  is  modified  by  other  impulses  of  the 
child's  nature. 

Imitation  and  the  Constructive  Impulse.  —  To  make 
clear   the  relation  that  exists  between  imitation  and  the 


THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL:   IMITATION.  123 

Other  impulses  of  the  child,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  dis- 
cuss at  some  length  the  influence  of  imitation  upon  the 
constructive  impulse.  It  is  upon  this  side  of  our  nature 
that  we  are  dependent  for  our  knowledge  of  the  properties 
of  the  external  world.  Many  of  the  qualities  of  objects 
which  seem  to  be  made  known  through  the  sense  of  sight 
are,  as  Berkeley  proved,  not  really  seen  at  all.  When  we 
seem  directly  to  see  an  object  as  rough,  smooth,  hard,  soft, 
and  the  like,  we  really  only  experience  a  color  which 
directly  suggests  the  quality  that  we  have  found  to  be 
uniformly  connected  with  it.  As  the  significance  of  lan- 
guage depends  on  the  association  of  ideas  or  thoughts 
with  certain  sensations  of  sound,  so  the  significance  of 
color  in  making  known  the  qualities  of  objects  depends 
on  the  association  of  those  qualities  with  sensations  of 
sight. 

Now  the  extent  to  which  we  handle  and  experiment 
upon  objects  is  largely  a  matter  of  imitation.  If  one  were 
asked  why  there  was  so  little  experimental  study  of  nature 
during  the  Middle  Ages,  it  would  not  be  a  truism  to  an- 
swer. Because  it  was  not  the  fashion.  What  is  regarded 
as  the  thing  to  do  is  a  matter  of  common  opinion,  and 
common  opinion,  as  we  shall  see  later,  is  the  result  of  imi- 
tation. But  imitation  does  not  create  tendencies  to  action. 
It  derives  its  importance  from  the  emphasis  which  it  lays 
upon  preexisting  tendencies.  And  this  is  equivalent  to 
saying  that  were  it  not  for  the  constructive  impulse  there 
would  be  no  handling  of  things,  no  model  of  this  sort  for 
imitation  to  copy.  If,  then,  the  activities  due  to  the 
constructive  impulse,  no  matter  how  occasioned,  reveal  to 
us  all  that  we  ever  learn  about  the  external  world,  and 
if  the  influence  of  imitation  in  this  direction  is  wholly  de- 


124    ^  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

pendent  on  activities  which  it  finds  already  in  force  when 
it  becomes  operative,  then  we  must  say  that  all  that  imi- 
tation does  is  to  intensify  the  action  of  impulses  to  which 
alone,  in  the  last  analysis,  our  knowledge  of  the  external 
world  is  due. 

Interaction  of  Impulses. — Nor  has  imitation  a  monopoly 
of  this  kind  of  influence.  Is  it  necessary  to  say  that 
what  begins  as  a  blind  impulse  to  handle  things  may  be 
continued  through  the  desire  to  know  ?  Or  that  the  boy 
whose  combined  constructive  and  intellectual  impulses 
are  not  strong  enough  to  induce  him  to  experiment  on 
things  may  be  induced  to  do  it  through  emulation  ?  Or 
that  the  child  whose  constructive,  intellectual,  and  emula- 
tive impulses  together  are  not  strong  enough  to  incite 
him  to  do  a  bit  of  experimental  work  may  do  it  through 
the  desire  to  please  parent  and  teacher.?  Or  that  the 
desire  to  do  right  may  tip  the  scale  when  all  other  influ- 
ences have  failed  ? 

Now  this  interlacing  and  interacting  of  impulses  may  be 
regarded  as  the  normal  mode  of  human  development. 
Instead  of  saying  that  imitation  is  the  method  of  the 
child's  personal  progress,  we  should  say  that  the  child 
develops  imder  the  combined  influences  of  all  the  impulses 
of  his  nature.  No  one,  for  example,  ever  became  a  good 
writer  or  a  good  talker  through  mere  imitation. 

Of  course  the  impulse  that  leads  to  both  talking  and 
writing  is  the  social.  But  this  alone,  supported  only  by 
imitation  —  unaided  by  the  desire  to  excel,  by  the  wish  to 
please,  by  the  ambition  to  play  one's  part  in  life  rightly  and 
honorably  —  would  inevitably  fail  to  stimulate  the  exertion 
necessary  to  the  achievement  of  success. 


THE   CM1LD*S   CAI>ITaL:  IMITATION.  12^ 

Another  Interpretation  of  Professor  Baldwin.  —  It  may 
be  said  that  I  have  failed  to  grasp  Professor  Baldwin's 
meaning.  He  would  grant,  it  may  be  contended,  that  the 
actions  which  result  in  growth  are  the  result  of  the  inter- 
action of  the  various  impulses  of  the  child.  His  position, 
it  may  be  said,  is  that,  however  various  and  complex  the 
motives  that  issue  in  action,  the  thing  done  depends  on 
imitation,  provided  the  doing  of  it  contributes  to  develop- 
ment. 

If  this  is  his  doctrine,  he  is  not  exposed  to  the  criticisms 
so  far  made  in  this  chapter.  In  any  event,  it  has  seemed 
worth  while  to  make  them,  because  that  interpretation  of 
his  teaching  affords  an  excellent  opportunity  for  stating 
the  true  relation  between  imitation  and  the  other  impulses 
of  the  mind.  But  according  to  the  interpretation  just 
suggested  his  theory  is  that,  although  all  our  impulses 
express  themselves  in  action,  the  particular  things  done 
depend  on  imitation.  Child  and  man  alike,  in  their 
amusements  as  well  as  in  their  more  serious  occupations, 
find  in  the  various  impulses  of  their  nature  the  sources  of 
all  their  actions.  With  no  models  for  imitation,  children 
nevertheless  would  play,  and  men  would  seek  to  obtain 
food  and  protect  themselves  against  danger.  The  model 
only  causes  the  imitating  propensity  to  furnish  a  new  vent 
for  the  other  impulses.  Without  imitation,  the  actions  of 
a  human  being  would  be  due  entirely  to  himself.  The 
imitative  propensity  enables  a  man  to  combine  with  his 
fellows  and  learn  from  them.  It  causes  children  to  play 
games  which  they  otherwise  would  not,  and  men  to  seek 
to  provide  themselves  with  food  and  protect  themselves 
against  danger  by  methods  which  they  would  not  else 
employ.     It  enables  us,  in  a  word,  to  gratify  our  impulses 


126  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

by  the  improved  methods  due  to  the  experience  of  the 
race. 

It  must  be  conceded  that  this  theory  contains  a  large 
measure  of  truth.  No  one  would  say  that  children  and 
young  animals  in  general  are  addicted  to  play  because  of 
imitation.  But  imitation  is  undoubtedly  the  reason  why 
in  one  school  cricket,  and  in  another  football,  is  the  favorite 
game. 

Imitation  and  Intelligence.  —  But  even  in  this  sense  it 
is  not  true  to  say  that  imitation  is  the  essential  method  of 
the  child*s  growth,  and  that  society  grows  by  "  imitative 
generalizations  of  the  thoughts  of  others.**  Sometimes  a 
child  imitates  a  copy  simply  because  it  is  before  him,  and 
sometimes  because  he  sees  that  doing  what  another  has 
done  will  enable  him  to  reach  a  desired  end  in  a  simpler 
and  better  way.  Looked  at  from  the  outside,  both  actions 
appear  to  have  the  same  characteristics  ;  each  is  an  imita- 
tion of  an  action  taken  as  a  model.  Viewed  from  the 
inside,  the  two  actions  are  as  far  apart  as  the  poles. 
The  one  is  the  result  of  a  blind  impulse  to  imitate ;  the 
other,  of  the  open-eyed  perception  that  the  imitated  action 
is  a  simpler  and  better  means  to  a  desired  end.  The  men 
who  imitated  their  fellows  in  carrying  their  com  to  mill 
by  putting  on  a  horse  a  bag  with  a  bushel  of  grain  in  one 
end  of  it,  balanced  by  a  stone  of  equal  weight  in  the  other, 
serve  to  illustrate  one  kind  of  imitation  ;  the  other  kind 
is  instanced  by  men  who  imitated  the  inventor  who  dis- 
covered that  two  bushels  could  be  carried  as  easily  as  one 
by  putting  a  second  bushel  in  the  place  of  the  stone.  To 
say  that  the  latter  action  is  due  to  imitation  is  to  take  no 
account  of  the  essential  factor  in  the  case.     With  two 


OFTF.T 

UNlVERSi 

''^Qi^/  ; p..!! ^,  THE  CHILD'S   CAPITAL:   IMITATION.  127 

models  before  them,  men  imitated  one  and  rejected  the 
other.  Why  ?  Because  of  their  intelligence ;  because 
they  saw  that  one  method  of  reaching  their  end  was  better 
than  the  other.  If  we  are  to  describe  the  facts  as  they 
are,  we  must  say  that  men  influence  their  fellows  in  two 
ways :  by  performing  actions  which  their  fellows  imitate 
simply  because  of  their  propensity  to  imitate,  and  by  per- 
forming actions  which  are  imitated  not  at  all  because  of 
the  imitative  propensity,  but  because  of  the  intelligence  of 
those  who  imitate  them. 

But  this  statement  of  the  case  does  not  do  justice  to  the 
influence  of  intelligence.  The  actions  of  the  stupidest, 
most  unintelligent  men  are  rarely  due  to  imitation  alone. 
The  man  who  balanced  a  bushel  of  grain  in  one  end  of  a 
bag  with  a  stone  of  equal  weight  in  the  other  did  not  do 
so,  as  was  stated  above,  through  the  influence  of  the  imi- 
tative impulse.  He  wished  to  carry  corn  to  the  mill,  and 
he  saw  that  this  was  a  better  way  than  the  only  other  one 
that  occurred  to  him  —  carrying  it  on  his  back.  His  ac- 
tion, it  is  evident,  was  due,  not  to  his  imitative  propensity, 
but  to  his  intelligence. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the  inventor  who  thinks 
out  a  new  way  and  the  man  who  adopts  the  method 
already  in  vogue  for  attaining  his  end  do  so  for  the  same 
reason.  The  intelligence  of  the  former  enables  him  to  see 
that  he  can  accomplish  his  object  in  a  new  and  better  way ; 
the  intelligence  of  the  latter  only  enables  him  to  see  that 
he  can  attain  his  end  in  the  customary  manner.  It  doubt- 
less requires  a  greater  amount  of  intelligence  to  invent 
a  thing  than  it  does  to  perceive  its  excellence.  But  it  is 
not  the  degree  but  the  kind  of  thing  which  is  in  question, 
and  our  contention  is  that  it  is  utterly  false  to  ascribe  to 


128     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

imitation  an  action  which  is  really  due  to  a  lower  degree  of 
intelligence. 

I  submit,  therefore,  that  Professor  Baldwin  is  wrong 
when  he  says  that  society  grows  by  imitative  generaliza- 
tions of  the  thoughts  of  others.  Society  grows  by  adopt- 
ing the  discoveries  of  others,  and  it  adopts  them  because  it 
sees  them  to  be  true.  Urged  by  the  desire  to  include  the 
actions  of  living  creatures  under  the  most  comprehensive 
induction,  the  Professor  has  ignored  the  fundamental  dis- 
tinction between  actions  which  are  imitated  merely  because 
of  the  disposition  to  imitate  and  those  which  are  imitated 
through  intelligence. 

We  shall  not  be  mistaken,  I  think,  if  we  suppose  that  he 
has  made  the  same  error  when  he  says  that  the  child's 
essential  method  of  learning  is  by  imitative  absorption  of 
the  thoughts  of  other  people.  A  boy  may  show  his  ability 
as  a  student  of  geometry  in  two  ways  :  by  the  thorough- 
ness with  which  he  comprehends  and  appropriates  the 
demonstrations  of  others,  and  by  his  originality  in  making 
demonstrations  of  his  own.  Each  is  due  to  the  exercise  of 
his  inteUigence.  The  only  sort  of  geometrical  study  which 
could  be  properly  called  the  imitative  absorption  of  the 
thoughts  of  others  is  that  which  consists  in  the  memorizing 
of  the  language  of  a  demonstration  when  the  demonstration 
is  not  understood.  And  it  goes  without  saying  that  Pro- 
fessor Baldwin  does  not  mean  to  say  that  a  boy  grows  by 
that  sort  of  absorption  of  the  thoughts  of  geometry. 

But  if  the  Professor  means  the  same  thing  by  imitative 
absorption  that  I  mean  by  the  intellectual  appropriation  of 
the  thoughts  of  others,  why  does  it  matter  if  we  differ  as 
to  the  terms  to  be  employed  in  describing  the  fact  ? 
Because  (i)  there  is  that  in  the  life  of  the  child  which  is 


THE  CHILD'S   CAPITAL:  IMITATION. 


129 


accurately  described  when  it  is  called  the  imitative  absorp- 
tion of  the  thoughts  of  others,  while  there  is  a  very  differ- 
ent experience  which  is  properly  called  the  appropriation 
of  the  thoughts  of  others,  because  they  are  seen  to  be 
true ;  because  (2)  both  of  these  activities  contribute  to  the 
child's  development,  although  in  very  different  ways ; 
because  (3)  educational  science  needs  to  discriminate 
between  them  with  the  utmost  possible  exactness,  and  to 
determine  with  the  utmost  possible  precision  the  extent  to 
which  and  the  circumstances  under  which  each  is  to  be 
made  to  contribute  its  part  toward  the  development  of  the 
child. 

QUESTIONS   ON   THE   TEXT. 

1.  What,  in  Professor  Baldwin's  opinion,  is  the  relation  between 
imitation,  and  the  development  of  the  child  and  of  the  race  ? 

2.  State  and  illustrate  his  definition  of  biological,  psychological, 
and  plastic  imitation. 

3.  Show  that  he  ascribes  to  plastic  imitation  much  that  is  not  due 
to  any  kind  of  imitation. 

4.  State  and  illustrate  what  is  meant  by  the  imitation  of  thoughts 
and  feelings. 

5.  What  does  the  story  of  the  East  Indian  tailor  illustrate? 

6.  What  does  the  fact  that  men  are  not  influenced  by  seeing  a 
panic  in  a  flock  of  sheep  illustrate  ? 

7.  Why  was  there  so  little  experimental  study  of  nature  during  the 
Middle  Ages? 

8.  State  and  illustrate  what  is  meant  by  interaction  of  impulses. 

9.  Illustrate  the  difference  between  doing  what  another  does  be- 
cause of  imitation,  and  doing  it  because  of  intelligence. 

10.  Show  that  what  seems  to  be  mere  imitation  may  really  be  due 
to  intelligence. 

11.  State  clearly  the  two  interpretations  which  the  text  suggests  of 
Professor  Baldwin's  theory  and  show  that  according  to  either  of 
them  it  is  incorrect. 

12.  What,  in  your  opinion,  does  Professor  Baldwin  really  mean  to 
say? 


130    A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

13.  Why  is  it  important  to  discriminate  between  actions  due  to 
imitation,  and  those  due  to  intelligence  ? 


SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  Are  any  of  your  own  beliefs  due  to  plastic  imitation? 

2.  Have  you  seen  examples  of  plastic  imitation  in  the  pupils  of 
your  school  ? 

3.  Which  exerts  the  greater  influence,  plastic  or  psychological 
imitation? 

4.  Do  you  know  of  any  scientific  opinions  that  seem  to  you  to  be 
due  to  plastic  imitation  ? 

5.  What  period  in  history  is  called  the  Middle  Ages? 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  FUNCTION   OF   IMITATION. 

If  it  be  true  that  we  have  a  tendency  to  imitate  any- 
thing that  comes  before  us,  and  that  this  tendency  is  modi- 
fied by  all  the  impulses  of  our  nature,  it  ought  to  be  easy 
to  determine  in  a  general  way  (i)  the  period  when  this 
tendency  begins  to  assert  itself,  and  (2)  that  during  which 
it  is  most  influential. 

When  the  Child  Begins  to  Imitate.  —  Manifestly  imita- 
tion cannot  become  operative  in  the  life  of  the  child  until 
he  is  some  months  old.  In  the  first  months  of  his  life  he 
leads  chiefly  a  vegetative  existence.  His  consciousness  is 
in  too  vague  and  chaotic  a  state  to  render  it  possible  for 
outside  influences  to  affect  it  except  in  the  way  of  stimu- 
lations. We  are,  therefore,  prepared  to  learn  from  the 
students  of  genetic  psychology  that  it  begins  to  be  a  factor 
in  the  child's  development  during  the  last  two  thirds  of  his 
first  year.^ 

1  «  The  early  intellectual  life  of  the  child  is  lost  to  us  in  obscurity.  .  .  . 
But  we  are  clear  that  the  infant  in  the  first  months  of  life  has  nothing 
that  we  should  call  self-consciousness.  The  first  clear  evidence  that  we 
get  of  the  presence  of  a  form  of  self-consciousness  intelligible  to  us  comes 
when  the  infant  begins  to  be  observantly  imitative  of  the  acts  and,  later, 
of  the  words  of  the  people  about  it."  (Royce,  Studies  of  Good  and  Evil, 
p.  182.) 

"  Imitation  begins  to  appear  about  the  fourth  month.'*  (Sully,  The 
Human  Mind,  ii,  218.)    "According  to  Tracy  there  are  few  points  so  gen- 

131 


132  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

When  Imitation  Exerts  the  Most  Powerful  Influence.  — 

Now  the  considerations  urged  in  the  preceding  chapter 
make  it  evident  that  the  period  in  the  child's  Ufe  during 
which  imitation  exercises  the  most  powerful  influence  on 
the  course  of  his  development  is  that  in  which  his  character 
is  being  formed,  using  the  term  character  in  the  broad 
psychological  rather  than  in  the  narrow  ethical  sense.  The 
tendency  to  imitate  everything  that  comes  before  us  is  for 
the  most  part  held  in  check  by  the  mature  man.  We 
deliberately  strive  against  the  tendency  to  imitate  the  bad 
manners,  the  incorrect  speech,  the  slouching  gait  of  those 
with  whom  we  come  in  contact.  We  have  formed  our 
style,  so  to  speak,  in  those  particulars.  But  the  very 
young  child  has  no  style ;  psychologically  speaking,  he  has 
no  character.  Boorish  manners,  careless  speech,  slovenly 
habits  offer  just  as  stimulating  a  copy  to  his  imitative 
impulse  as  do  the  opposite  characteristics. 

Influence  of  Heredity  on  Imitation.  —  It  is  in  fact  not 
true  that  even  children  are  equally  ready  to  imitate  every- 
thing that  comes  before  them.  Boys  do  not  long  amuse 
themselves  with  nursery  games,  nor  girls,  as  a  rule,  with 
plays  in  imitation  of  war.  Heredity  begins  at  a  very  early 
age  to  exercise  an  influence  in  favor  of  one  model  for  imi- 
tation rather  than  another.  But  how  slight  is  the  obstacle 
to  indiscriminate  imitation  which  is  presented  by  heredity 
in  comparison  with  that  which  is  offered  by  character  as 
developed  in  the  mature  man,  will  begin  to  be  evident  if 

erally  accepted  without  question  by  child  psychologists  in  general  as  that 
of  the  beginning  of  imitation  in  the  second  half-year."  But  "  Baldwin, 
like  Egger,  could  not  be  sure  of  it  before  the  ninth  month."  ^Groos,  The 
play  of  Man,  p.  2^1.) 


THE   FUNCTION  OF   IMITATION. 


^33 


we  remember  that  in  very  many  directions  heredity  is  en- 
tirely neutral.  We  have  a  hereditary  impulse  to  talk.  But 
this  impulse  is  perfectly  satisfied  by  the  use  of  ai*y  kind  of 
language,  good,  bad,  or  indifferent. 

Probably  what  we  have  agreed  to  call  plastic  imitation 
encounters  no  hereditary  obstacle  whatever.  How  much 
this  means  will  begin  to  appear  if  we  try  to  realize  the 
tremendous  importance  of  its  part  in  the  development  of 
the  child  and  of  the  race. 

Plastic  Imitation.  —  Bagehot  has  shown  that  the*  char- 
acteristics which  distinguish  the  literature  of  one  period 
from  that  of  the  one  before  are  due  to  it.  "  The  true 
explanation*'  of  how  a  literature  in  one  period  comes  to 
differ  from  that  of  the  preceding,  he  says,  is  "  something 
like  this.  One  considerable  writer  gets  a  sort  of  start  be- 
cause what  he  writes  is  somewhat  more  .  .  .  congenial  to 
the  minds  around  him  than  any  other  sort.  .  .  .  Some 
strong  writer,  or  group  of  writers,  thus  seize  on  the  public 
mind,  and  a  curious  process  soon  assimilates  other  writers 
in  appearance  to  them.  To  some  extent,  no  doubt,  this 
assimilation  is  effected  by  a  process  most  intelligible,  and 
not  at  all  curious  —  the  process  of  conscious  imitation." 
But  Bagehot  thinks,  and  truly,  that  it  does  not  generally 
happen  this  way.  "  Most  men  catch  the  words  that  are 
in  the  air,  and  the  rhythm  which  comes  to  them  they  do 
not  know  from  whence ;  an  unconscious  imitation  deter- 
mines their  words  and  makes  them  say  what  of  themselves 
they  would  never  have  thought  of  saying.  And  as  with 
the  writers,  so  in  a  less  degree  with  readers.  Many  men 
—  most  men  —  get  to  like,  or  think  they  like,  that  which 
13  ever  before  them,  and  which  those  around  them  like 


134    A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

[plastic  imitation],  and  which  received  opinion  says  they 
ought  to  like ;  or  if  their  minds  are  too  marked  and  oddly 
made  to  get  into  the  mould  **  —  if  their  nature  is  so  posi- 
tive as  to  cause  them  to  withstand  the  imitative  impulse  — 
"  they  give  up  reading  altogether  '*  or  read  old  books. 

Bagehot  thinks  that  national  character  arose  in  the 
same  way.  *' At  first  a  sort  of  chance  predominance  made 
a  model,  and  then  invincible  attraction,  the  necessity 
which  rules  all  but  the  strongest  men  [the  men  of  the  most 
positive  character]  to  imitate  what  is  before  their  eyes,  and 
to  be  what  they  are  expected  to  be,  moulded  men  by  that 
model.  .  .  .  Even  in  useful  particulars  the  innate  tend- 
ency of  the  human  mind  to  become  like  what  is  around  it 
has  effected  much  ;  a  sluggish  Englishman  will  often  catch 
the  eager  American  look  in  a  few  years ;  an  Irishman  or 
even  a  German  will  catch  it,  too,  even  in  all  English 
particulars."  ^ 

We  all  know  that  the  popular  games  of  a  school  change 
from  season  to  season,  and  most  of  us,  I  think,  will  agree 
with  Bagehot  in  finding  the  explanation  in  plastic  imita- 
tion. "Some  ruling  spirits,  some  one  or  two  ascendant 
boys,"  make  all  the  difference.  If  one  of  these  ruling 
spirits  leaves  a  school,  and  his  place  is  taken  by  another 
who  likes  a  different  game,  the  new  game  will  soon  become 
popular.  A  change  in  the  model  brings  about  a  change  in 
the  copy. 

Bagehot  points  out  that  belief  is  the  main  seat  of  the 
imitative  part  of  our  nature.  "  In  <  Eothen '  there  is  a 
capital  description  of  how  every  sort  of  European  resident 
in  the  East,  even  the  shrewd  merchant  and  the  post  cap- 
tain, with  his  bright,  wakeful  eyes  of  commerce,  comes 

I  Bagehot*s  Physics  and  Politics,  pp.  32,  37. 


THE  FUNCTION   OF  IMITATION. 


*35 


soon  to  believe  in  witchcraft,  and  to  assure  you  in  confi- 
dence that  there  *  really  is  something  in  it/  He  has  never 
seen  anything  convincing  himself,  but  he  has  seen  those 
who  have  seen  those  who  have  seen.  In  fact  he  has  lived 
in  an  atmosphere  of  infectious  beliefs  and  he  has  inhaled  it.**  * 

What  we  call  Zeitgeist  —  the  spirit  of  the  time—  illus- 
trates the  same  law.  For  a  long  period  in  Roman  history 
the  father  had  —  and  every  one  thought  it  perfectly  proper 
that  he  should  have  —  absolute  authority  over  all  the  mem- 
bers of  his  family,  even  to  the  extent  of  life  and  death. 
Each  succeeding  generation  of  Romans  was  born  into  a 
society  in  which  that  opinion  was  held  and  acted  on,  and 
that  characteristic  of  human  nature  which  we  have  called 
plastic  imitation  made  them  cherish  the  same  conviction. 

Every  commercial  crisis  illustrates  the  same  law.  Every 
such  crisis  has  two  stages :  ( i )  an  almost  universal  over- 
weening confidence  in  the  possibilities  of  making  money, 
which  leads  to  wild  speculation ;  (2)  an  equally  excessive 
distrust  as  to  the  probable  results  of  investments  —  which 
precipitates  a  panic.  Both  of  these  stages  are  due  to 
plastic  imitation. 

Plastic  Imitation  and  Higher  Immediacy.  —  There  is 
hardly  any  limit  to  the  illustrations  that  might  be  given  of 
the  influence  of  plastic  imitation.  But  if  those  that  have 
been  given  are  clear,  one  thing  will  be  evident :  plastic  imi- 
tation is  so  strong  a  force  in  the  lives  of  men  that  it  is  able 
to  modify,  or  even  altogether  break  down,  the  beliefs  of 
mature  and  thoughtful  persons.  It  requires  a  man  of  quite 
unusual  strength  of  mind  to  be  able  to  keep  his  opinions 
with  no  lessening  of  confidence  in  their  truth,  in  the  midst 

1  Bagehot's  Physics  and  Politics,  p.  93.    Italics  not  in  the  original 


136  A   BROADER  ELEMENTARY    EDUCATION. 

of  a  society  that  utterly  disbelieves  them.  Is  it  not  evident, 
then,  that  the  young  child,  with  its  mind  "to  let"  on  all 
subjects,  with  no  opinions  to  oppose  to  those  of  the  minds 
with  whom  it  comes  in  contact,  must  be  entirely  at  the 
mercy  of  those  opinions?  In  a  previous  chapter  it  was 
pointed  out  that  we  take  some  things  to  be  true  without 
proof,  and  it  was  shown  that  we  come  by  some  of  them  in 
a  way  which  was  designated  by  the  phrase  *'  higher  imme- 
diacy." We  have,  as  was  there  illustrated,  certain  ideas 
as  to  the  universality  of  law,  and  the  nature  of  moral  obli- 
gation, which  we  should  not  have  had  if  we  had  lived  in  an 
earlier  period  in  the  history  of  the  world  — which  we  should 
not  have  if  we  had  been  bom  in  a  different  civilization. 
Whence  came  those  ideas  ?  How  does  it  happen  that  the 
ideas  and  ideals  of  an  able  Chinaman  are  so  different  from 
those  of  an  able  American  ?  It  is  due,  I  think  there  can 
be  no  doubt,  to  plastic  imitation.  Europeans  and  Ameri- 
cans believe  in  the  universality  of  law,  and  cherish  certain 
moral  ideals  because  from  their  birth  they  have  been  sur- 
rounded by  models  of  those  beliefs,  and  they  have  been 
compelled  by  the  very  law  of  their  being  to  copy  them. 
The  Chinaman,  having  been  surrounded  by  different 
models,  has  a  different  set  of  beliefs  because  he  has  made 
different  copies. 

Signe  Rink's  Childhood.  —  From  this  it  follows  that  the 
beliefs  of  the  very  young  as  to  what  is  true,  fitting,  right, 
noble,  beautiful,  desirable  —  apart  from  objects  which  are 
desired  because  they  satisfy  the  needs  of  the  animal 
nature  —  must  be  the  opinions  of  those  by  whom  they  are 
surrounded:  they  can  be  nothing  else.  An  illustration 
may  help  to  make  this  clear.     Signe  Rink  tells  of  her 


THE   FUNCTION   OF   IMITATION.  I37 

childhood  spent  in  Greenland :  "  Like  all  European  chil- 
dren in  the  country,  my  brothers  and  sisters  and  I  had 
a  genuine  passion  for  everything  pertaining  to  Greenland, 
and  accordingly,  as  soon  as  the  door  was  shut  on  our 
elders  we  tried  in  every  possible  way  and  by  all  sorts  of 
mimicry  to  identify  ourselves  with  our  playmates.  My 
brother  got  himself  up  as  a  seal-hunter  from  head  to  foot, 
and  I  became  an  Eskimo  woman  with  waddling  gait,  who 
was  sternly  forbidden  to  leave  the  house.'*  And  in  speak- 
ing of  her  play  with  a  Greenlandic  girl  she  says  :  "  Over 
our  heads  hung  boots,  hose,  skins,  trousers,  and  tuniaks 
(underjackets)  to  dry  in  the  warmth  of  the  lamp  or  to  be 
out  of  the  way.  All  these  surroundings  formed  elements 
in  our  play.  In  imagination  we  had  sent  our  husbands  off 
on  a  seal-hunt,  and  with  thimbles  on  our  first  fingers,  the 
Greenland  custom,  we  sewed  round  flaps  for  the  boot-soles 
of  the  absent  ones."  ^ 

Imitation  and  Character,  —  Evidently  the  readiness  to 
take  up  the  psychic  life  of  the  Greenlander  —  his  life  of 
thought  and  feeling  and  emotion,  his  life  of  aspirations 
and  ideals  —  was  just  as  great  as  the  readiness  to  imitate 
his  outward  conduct.  Professor  Baldwin  puts  the  matter 
very  suggestively  when  he  says  :  "  It  is  not  only  likely  — 
it  is  inevitable  —  that  he  [the  child]  makes  up  his  person- 
ality, under  limitations  of  heredity,  by  imitation,  out  of  the 
'  copy '  set  in  the  actions,  temper,  emotions  of  the  people 
who  build  around  him  the  social  inclosUre  of  his  child- 
hood. It  is  only  necessary  to  watch  a  two-year-old  closely 
to  see  what  members  of  the  family  are  giving  him  his 
personal  *  copy  '  —  to  find  out  whether  he  sees  his  mother 
1  Quoted  by  Groos,  The  Play  of  Man,  p.  305. 


138     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

constantly  and  his  father  seldom  ;  whether  he  plays  much 
with  other  children,  and  what  their  dispositions  are  to  a 
degree  ;  whether  he  is  growing  to  be  a  person  of  subjec- 
tion, equality,  or  tyranny ;  whether  he  is  assimilating  the 
elements  of  some  low,  unorganized  social  content  from  his 
foreign  nurse.  For,  in  Leibnitz's  phrase,  the  boy  or  girl 
s  a  social  monad,  a  little  world  which  reflects  the  whole 
system  of  influences  coming  to  stir  its  sensibilities.  And 
just  as  far  as  his  sensibilities  are  stirred  he  imitates, 
and  forms  habits  of  imitating.  And  habits.'* — they  are 
character."  ^ 

If  the  last  two  sentences  are  to  be  accepted  without 
qualification,  it  would  seem  that  the  contention  of  the  pre- 
ceding chapter  is  erroneous  ;  that  Professor  Baldwin  is 
right  in  maintaining  that  the  sole  factor  concerned  in 
development  is  imitation.  For  if  character  is  the  result  of 
imitation,  and  if  the  only  resistance  which  imitation  en- 
counters comes  from  character,  then  resistance  to  imita- 
tion is  itself  due  to  a  product  of  imitation.  Being  what  I 
am,  I  refuse  to  imitate  certain  models,  but  I  am  what 
imitation  has  made  me.  I  refuse  to  imitate  later  mod- 
els because  I  have  imitated  earlier  ones  of  a  different 
type. 

Professor  Baldwin  has  himself  shown  us  in  the  para- 
graph we  have  quoted  how  his  statement  is  to  be  qualified  : 
the  child  makes  up  his  personality  by  imitation  "under 
limitations  of  heredity  "  —  and  exceedingly  important  limi- 
tations. Character,  therefore,  —  that  which  enables  us  to 
offer  effective  resistance  to  imitation,  —  is  the  product  of 
imitation  and  the  other  hereditary  tendencies  and  capaci- 
ties of  our  nature. 

1  Baldwin,  Mental  Development,  p.  357 


THE  FUNCTION   OF   IMITATION.  I39 

Imitation  and  Reason.  —  We  may,  then,  concisely  an- 
swer the  two  questions  asked  at  the  beginning  of  this  chap- 
ter as  follows :  (i)  Imitation  begins  to  be  a  factor  in  the 
development  of  the  child  in  the  latter  part  of  the  first 
year  of  his  life.  (2)  Although  it  never  ceases  to  exert  an 
influence,  that  influence  constantly  diminishes  with  the  de- 
velopment of  the  intelligence  and  of  the  moral  and  aesthetic 
nature.  The  function  of  imitation,  then,  as  Professor 
Groos  has  well  said,  is  to  go  before  intelligence  and  pre- 
pare the  way  for  it.  The  ideal  man,  the  philosopher  of 
Plato's  Republic,  the  sage  of  the  Stoics,  the  man  who 
illustrates  in  his  nature  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer*s  concep- 
tion of  complete  living  or  Dr.  Dewey's  notion  of  perfect 
character,  would  be  entirely  free  from  the  influence  of 
imitation.  His  life  would  be  a  strenuous  and  consistent 
effort  to  realize  his  own  ethical,  aesthetic,  and  intellectual 
ideals  under  the  guidance  of  his  own  reason.  Looking  at 
the  matter  in  this  ideal  way,  we  have  at  one  end  of  the 
line  —  say  when  the  child  is  about  a  year  old  —  imitation 
as  the  great  controlling  force,  apart  from  the  impulses 
to  eat,  drink,  sleep,  and  the  like,  in  the  child's  life ;  at  the 
other  end  reason  has  become  supreme.  But  the  rule  of 
reason  has  been  substituted  for  that  of  imitation  only  little 
by  little,  and  imitation  controlled  in  the  beginning  in  order 
that  reason  might  govern  in  the  end. 


QUESTIONS   ON   THE   TEXT. 

1.  State  in  your  own  language  the  substance  of  this  chapter. 

2.  Why  does  imitation  exert  a  more  powerful  influence  during  the 
early  part  of  a  child's  life  than  it  does  afterwards? 

3.  What  is  heredity,  and  what  mfluence  does  it  exert  on  imitation  ? 


140     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

4.  State  the  influence  of  imitation  on  {a)  literature,  0)  national 
character,  {c)  games,  (a)  the  spirit  of  the  times. 

5.  Why  did  successive  generations  of  Romans  think  it  was  right 
for  a  father  to  have  absolute  authority  over  his  son  ? 

6.  Explain  ** lower  immediacy,"  "mediacy,"  and  "higher  imme- 
diacy." 

7.  Show  that  the  beliefs  gained  through  higher  immediacy  are  due 
to  plastic  imitation. 

8.  What  is  the  relation  (a)  between  imitation  and  intelligence,  (d) 
between  imitation  and  character  ? 


SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS. 

1.  There  is  a  period  in  the  life  of  a  human  being  which  might  be 
described  as  the  instinctive,  another  as  the  imitative,  and  a  third  as 
the  intelligent  period ;  what,  roughly  speaking,  would  you  say  these 
periods  correspond  to  ? 

2.  Mention  some  of  the  instincts  of  human  beings. 

3.  Can  you  cite  examples  which  seem  to  you  to  show  the  influence 
of  heredity? 

4.  What  is  the  difference  between  heredity  and  character? 

5.  Can  you  illustrate  from  your  own  observation  the  influence  of 
imitation  on  language  and  games  ? 

6.  Does  imitation  account  for  the  beginning  of  the  Roman  custom, 
or  merely  for  its  continuance  ? 

7.  How  does  the  commercial  crisis  of  1817-19  illustrate  the  influ- 
ence of  plastic  imitation  ? 

8.  What  is  the  relation  between  imitation  and  tradition  ? 

9.  Does  imitation,  or  reason,  exert  the  greater  influence  over  the 
lives  of  most  men  ? 


CHAPTER   XII. 

HOW   THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL   IS   TO   BE   INVESTED: 
IMITATION. 

President  Eliot  on  the  Public  School.  — Some  impor- 
tant pedagogical  inferences  may  be  drawn  from  the  con- 
clusions we  have  just  reached.  These  conclusions  enable 
us  to  see  that  we  may  expect  too  much  of  the  school  — 
much  indeed,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  that  it  is  impossible 
for  it  to  accomplish.  President  EUot's  recent  declaration 
before  a  state  teachers'  association  **that  our  common 
schools  have  failed  signally  to  cultivate  general  intelli- 
gence, as  is  evinced  by  the  failure  to  deal  adequately  with 
the  liquor  problem,  by  the  prevalence  of  gambling,  of 
strikes  accompanied  with  violence,  and  by  the  persistency 
of  the  spoils  system,"  ^  makes  one  wonder  whether  even 
he  realizes  the  inevitable  limitations  of  the  school.  At 
whose  door  are  we  to  lay  the  responsibility  for  the  liquor 
evil,  gambling,  and  the  continuance  of  the  spoils  system  ? 
Primarily  at  the  door  of  society.  Society,  or  at  any  rate 
a  portion  of  it,  approves  of  gambling,  drinking  intoxicat- 
ing liquor,  the  spoils  system,  and  the  average  man  gets 
his  ideas  as  to  what  is  proper  and  right,  through  plastic 
imitation,  from  society.  The  school  is  indeed  to  a  limited 
extent  responsible  for  the  ideas  and  ideals  of  society,  but 
only  to  a  limited  extent.  If  every  teacher  in  all  the 
schools  of  the  country  were  a  Socrates  or  a  Pestalozzi,  we 

^  A  newspaper  condensation  of  his  argument. 
141 


142     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

should  still  have  gambling  and  drunkenness  and  the  other 
evils  mentioned  by  President  Eliot,  although  not  so  much 
of  them.  These  evils  are  not  due  primarily  to  lack  of 
intelligence.  The  gamblers,  the  drunkards,  the  politicians 
who  thrive  on  the  spoils  system,  and  the  people  who 
approve  it  will  compare  very  favorably  in  point  of  intelli- 
gence with  their  neighbors.  So  far  as  the  source  of  these 
evils  is  not  found  in  ineradicable  elements  of  human  nature, 
they  are  found  in  the  ideals  of  society.  Alcibiades,  one  of 
the  most  gifted  pupils  of  one  of  the  most  gifted  teachers 
in  the  world,  was  not  prevented  from  living  a  life  which 
did  the  utmost  violence  to  all  the  precepts  of  Socrates. 
The  great  sophist,  as  Plato  fitly  called  the  Athenian  public, 
corrupted  him.  Socrates  told  him  that  "  spiritual  wealth  *' 
is  the  only  thing  worth  living  for  in  this  world.  But 
Athenian  society  told  him  a  very  different  story — that 
money,  position,  pleasure,  are  the  important  matters ;  and 
he  listened  to  its  voice,  and  that  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  teaching  of  Socrates  made  **his  heart  leap  within 
him  "  and  his  eyes  rain  tears.^ 

Imitation  the  Chief  Source  of  Ideals.  —  The  truth  is, 
the  school  can  do  much  more  to  quicken  the  intelligence 
of  its  pupils  than  to  ennoble  their  ideals.  When  the  boy 
leaves  school  in  the  afternoon  he  is  subjected  to  no  influ- 
ences that  directly  tend  to  weaken  the  intellectual  fibre 
or  dim  the  insight  which  the  performance  of  the  day's 
tasks  has  given  him.  His  added  intellectual  power  is  his 
as  an  inalienable  possession.  Can  this  be  said  of  any  im- 
pulse which  he  may  have  received  towards  higher  ideals 
of  conduct  ?  He  goes,  it  may  be,  to  a  home  in  which  the 
\  Plato's  Symposium. 


HOW   THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL  IS   TO   BE  INVESTED. 


H3 


one  standard  by  which  all  things  are  measured  is  money. 
He  mingles,  perhaps,  with  companions  who  value  a  thing 
only  as  there  is  money  in  it.  He  listens,  possibly,  to  con- 
versations in  which  pity  and  contempt  are  commingled  for 
the  man  who  for  the  sake  of  a  phantom  called  duty  fore- 
goes an  opportunity  to  get  rich.  He  reads  newspapers, 
perchance,  whose  columns  are  filled  with  the  doings  of 
millionaires  —  what  they  wear,  what  they  eat,  when  they 
dine,  how  many  hours  they  sleep.  In  this  event  what  is 
to  become  of  his  impulse  towards  higher  ideals  ? 

The  force  of  these  considerations  so  crudely  presented 
will  be  all  the  more  evident  if  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  he 
cannot  get  from  his  intellect  any  firm  support  for  his  ideals. 
These,  as  in  the  case  of  every  boy  or  man,  have  their  roots 
in  the  emotions,  and  when  he  undertakes  to  transplant  them 
to  his  intellect  he  undertakes  a  problem  which  has  per- 
plexed the  profoundest  of  the  philosophers.  We  were  all 
reading,  a  year  ago,  about  the  titled  English  ladies  who  were 
devoting  all  their  time  and  energies  to  the  devising  of 
toilets  for  the  coronation.  To  most  of  us  it  seems  a  poor 
use  to  put  one's  life  to,  but  by  what  arguments  could  we 
induce  those  ladies  to  accept  our  point  of  view  ?  Could 
we  convince  any  one  of  them  that  she  would  not  like  to  be 
known  as  the  wearer  of  the  most  beautiful  gown  or  the 
costliest  gems  on  that  occasion  ?  The  supreme  aim  of 
many  men  is  the  achievement  of  some  sort  of  reputation ; 
one  as  an  expert  whist  or  golf  or  chess  player,  another  as 
an  influential  member  of  Congress  without  regard  to  the 
means  whereby  the  influence  is  to  be  acquired  or  the 
objects  for  which  it  is  to  be  used,  still  another  as  a  giver  of 
the  finest  dinners,  and  so  on.  Poor  aim,  you  say.  Yes, 
but  what  are  you  going  to  do  about  it  ?     How  are  you  going 


144    A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

to  convince  those  who  care  supremely  for  insignificant 
things  that  their  ideals  are  unworthy  of  an  intelligent  being  ? 
It  is  only  the  philosopher  who  can  subject  his  ideals  to  a 
searching  investigation,  and  how  many  of  us  are  philoso- 
phers ?  Most  of  us  never  ask  ourselves  whether  what  we 
care  for  supremely  is  worth  our  regard, —  and  what  we 
care  for  depends,  for  the  most  part,  on  the  likings  of  those 
with  whom  we  associated  in  the  formative  period  of  our 
lives. 

It  is,  therefore,  vain  to  expect  from  the  school  as  much  in 
the  way  of  elevating  ideals  of  life  as  we  may  reasonably 
hope  from  it  in  the  way  of  quickening  the  intelligence. 
But  while  plastic  imitation  has  very  much  to  do  with  deter- 
mining ideals,  it  is  not  the  only  factor.  As  we  saw  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  the  hereditary  nature  of  the  child  will 
not  permit  him  to  accept  every  model  with  equal  readiness, 
and  the  earnest  teacher  may  be  perfectly  confident  that 
his  efforts  towards  elevating  his  pupil's  ideals  will  find  a 
powerful  ally  in  the  natures  of  some  of  them,  an  ally  so 
powerful  as  to  enable  them  to  withstand  all  the  antagonistic 
influences  that  may  be  brought  to  bear  upon  them. 

Cardinal  Newman  on  Imitation.  —  Our  point  of  view  also 
enables  us  to  perceive  the  mode  in  which  the  teacher  must 
do  his  work  in  this  respect,  provided  he  is  to  do  it  at  all. 
Those  only  can  inculcate  a  reverence  for  high  ideals  who 
feel  that  reverence  themselves.  That  profound  student  of 
human  nature  Cardinal  Newman,  in  a  remarkable  essay  on 
"Personal  Influence  the  Means  of  Propagating  Truth,'' 
dwelt  on  this  fact  at  great  length.  "The  silent  conduct 
of  a  conscientious  man,"  he  truly  said,  "  secures  for  him 
from  beholders  a  feeling  different  in  kind  from  any  which 


HOW  THE  CHILD'S   CAPITAL  IS  TO   BE  INVESTED. 


H5 


is  created  by  the  more  versatile  and  garrulous  reason" — or, 
as  I  should  say,  by  any  mere  appeal  to  the  intellect.  And 
such  conduct  excites  such  feelings  because  it  is  itself  in- 
spired by  a  profound  reverence  for  goodness,  and  thereby 
tends  to  awaken  it  in  others.  It  is  "  difficult,"  he  also  says, 
**to  estimate  the  moral  power  which  a  single  individual, 
trained  to  practise  what  he  teaches,  may  acquire  in  his 
own  circle  in  the  course  of  years."  And  that  moral  power 
is  due,  in  the  last  analysis,  to  devotion  to  his  highest  ideals 
of  conduct  and  of  truth. 

Imitation  and  Character-building. — We  have  been  hear- 
ing a  good  deal  of  late  —  and  none  too  much  —  about 
character-building  as  the  most  important  aim  of  education, 
and  the  Herbartians  have  been  unwearied  in  telling  us  how 
to  arrange  courses  of  study  to  that  end.  But  they  concen- 
trate attention  on  the  wrong  point.  Doubtless  the  true 
teacher  will  find  himself  handicapped  by  an  ill-arranged, 
injudicious  course  of  study.  In  the  matter  of  character- 
building,  however,  it  is  the  teacher,  and  not  the  course  of 
study,  that  counts.  And  the  teacher  whose  influence  tells 
is  not  of  necessity  the  one  with  the  greatest  amount  of 
knowledge  or  of  intellectual  power,  but  the  one  with  a 
supreme  regard  for  the  things  that  make  life  worth  the 
living. 

Imitation  During  the  Kindergarten  Period.  —  Our  point 
of  view  also  enables  us  to  see  a  new  reason  for  making  the 
Kindergarten  a  part  of  the  public-school  system.  It  would, 
as  we  know,  never  be  true  to  say  that  during  any  period  of 
the  child's  life  imitation  has  the  field  to  itself.  But  that, 
as  we  have  seen,  is  more  nearly  true  of  the  Kindergarten 


146     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

period  than  of  any  other.  Models  of  all  sorts  make  a  far 
more  powerful  and  undiscriminating  appeal  to  him  then  than 
they  do  when,  at  a  later  period,  his  character  has  begun  to 
develop.  Now  there  are  certain  phases  of  education  that 
are  very  well  described  by  saying  that  they  consist  in  put- 
ting before  the  pupil  models  to  be  imitated.  It  is  one  aim 
of  education  throughout  to  keep  before  the  pupil  certain 
models  of  clear  and  accurate  and  discriminating  thinking, 
of  correct  feeling,  and  of  strenuous  willing,  in  the  hope 
that  he  may  imitate  them.  If  there  is  a  period  in  the  life 
of  the  child  when  he  is  readier  to  imitate  any  kind  of 
model  than  he  ever  is  again,  that  is  the  period  when  it  is 
above  all  things  incumbent  on  society  to  do  what  it  cati  to 
bring  him  in  contact  with  those  who  are  worthy  of  being 
imitated.     That  period  is  the  Kindergarten  period. 

Imitation  in  Dress,. etc.  —  The  influence  of  imitation  in 
such  external  matters  as  dress,  neatness,  deportment,  lan- 
guage, is  self-evident.  A  pupil  whose  habits  in  these  par- 
ticulars are  not  what  they  ought  to  be  may  be  stimulated 
to  form  correct  ones  by  the  example  of  a  good  teacher. 

But  it  has  not  been  so  often  noticed  that  carelessness  in 
these  matters  may  materially  diminish  the  influence  of 
teachers  in  more  important  directions  in  the  case  of  pupils 
who  in  matters  of  dress  and  deportment  are  above  re- 
proach. It  requires  a  trained  eye  to  see  a  diamond  in 
the  rough.  And  admirable  traits  of  intellect  and  of  charac- 
ter, concealed  by  untidiness  in  dress  or  a  disregard  of  some 
of  the  smaller  conventions  of  life,  may  either  not  be  seen 
by  pupils  of  fastidious  taste,  or  may  appear  unadmirable^ 
because  of  their  associations.  It  is  said  that  in  a  certain 
school  in  Chicago  which  is  attended  by  many  children  of 


HOW   THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL   IS    TO   BE   INVESTED.      14-7 

wealthy  parents,  some  of  the.  pupils  do  not  recognize  their 
teachers  when  they  meet  them  on  the  street.  This  may, 
of  course,  be  due  to  the  fact  that  the  teachers  are  looked 
down  upon  because  they  are  poor.  If  so,  it  is  simple  snob- 
bishness, and  no  more  is  to  be  said  about  it.  But  it  may 
be  due  to  the  fact  that  the  teachers  are  careless  in  matters 
upon  which  their  pupils  have  been  taught  to  lay  great 
stress.  In  that  case  those  teachers  have  deprived  them- 
selves of  the  power  of  rendering  service  to  their  pupils  in 
the  most  important  matters.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that 
the  average  Chinaman  thinks  himself  vastly  superior  to  the 
average  European  or  American  because  our  manners  and 
customs  are  different  from  and  therefore,  from  his  point 
of  view,  inferior  to  his.  Teachers  need  to  understand, 
therefore,  that  when  they  fail  to  set  their  pupils  a  good 
example  in  external  matters,  the  result  upon  the  minds  of 
some  of  these  will  be  a  repugnance  to  patterning  after  them 
in  anything  —  a  disposition  to  like  what  the  latter  dislike, 
and  vice  versa. 

Influence  of  the  Child's  Associates.  —  If  the  child  is  sus- 
ceptible to  all  the  influences  with  which  it  comes  in  contact, 
it  is  the  business  of  the  school  to  do  what  it  can  to  protect 
him  from  influences  of  a  hurtful  character.  I  once  heard 
a  teacher  in  Dayton,  Ohio,  say  that  she  made  a  careful 
inquiry  as  to  how  her  pupils  —  boys  and  girls  from  ten  to 
thirteen  years  of  age  —  spent  their  evenings,  and  she  was 
astonished  to  learn  that  fully  one  third  spent  them  as 
they  liked  —  their  parents  did  not  know  how.  Where 
this  is  the  case  it  is  needless  to  say  that  the  work  of  the 
school  during  the  day  must  be  limited  to  the  production 
of   some  small  effect  upon  the  intellect,  imparting  some 


148     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

scraps  of  knowledge  and  developing  some  little  intellectual 
power.  The  boy's  real  teachers,  those  who  are  giving  him 
his  ideals  of  life  and  conduct,  are  the  companions  with 
whom  he  spends  his  evenings. 

It  does  not  fall  within  the  province  of  this  book  to  point 
out  particular  modes  for  dealing  with  such  an  evil.  The 
problem  is  a  difficult  one,  and  all  the  more  so  because  of 
the  fact  that  so  many  of  the  children  have  scarcely  any- 
thing that  deserves  to  be  called  a  home.  But  if  it  is 
worth  while  for  the  American  people  to  spend  nearly  two 
hundred  million  dollars  for  free  education,  it  must  be  worth 
while  for  them  to  do  something  towards  supplying  the 
practically  homeless  children  in  our  cities  and  towns  with 
amusements  and  recreations  which  they  may  enjoy  under 
such  circumstances  as  will  promote  the  work  of  the  school. 
Education  is  a  serious  business.  Once  we  come  to  under- 
stand how  serious  it  is,  we  shall  find  some  means  of  dimin- 
ishing the  number  of  those  who  spend  their  evenings  in 
such  a  way  as  to  bring  to  naught  the  efforts  of  the  school 
to  exert  a  moral  influence. 


QUESTIONS    ON   THE  TEXT. 

1.  What  criticism  has  President  Eliot  recently  made  on  the  public 
schools,  and  why  is  it  unjust? 

2.  What  is  the  chief  source  of  a  pupiPs  ideals,  and  why  ? 

3.  The  pupil  "  cannot  get  from  his  intellect  any  firm  support  for 
his  ideal.'*    Explain. 

4.  In  what  way  is  personal  influence  a  means  of  propagating 
truth? 

5.  What  is  the  relation  between  imitation  and  the  formation  of 
character  ? 

6.  Why  is  imitation  so  influential  during  the  kindergarten  period  ? 

7.  Why  does  the  average  Chinaman  think  himself  superior  to  the 
American  ? 


HOW   THE  CHILD'S   CAPITAL  IS  TO   BE  INVESTED.      1 49 

8.  What  is  the  bearing  of  this  fact  on  education  ? 

9.  Why  may  a  child's  associates  exert  a  greater  influence  on  his 
life  than  the  school  ? 


SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS, 

1.  What  is  meant  by  the  spoils  system,  and  in  whose  administra- 
tion did  it  originate  ? 

2.  What  makes  possible  its  continuance? 

3.  How  does  the  story  of  Alcibiades  illustrate  the  influence  of 
imitation  ? 

4.  How  was  it  that  such  a  man  as  he  could  be  so  deeply  aflfccted 
by  the  teaching  of  Socrates  ? 

5.  Show  that  ideals  are  not  produced  by  argument. 

6.  What  sort  of  imitation  exerts  the  greater  influence  during  the 
period  of  maturity,  and  in  what  way  ? 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

HOW   THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL   IS   TO   BE   INVESTED  : 
MANUAL  TRAINING. 

Curiosity.  —  In  the  preceding  chapters  some  of  the  more 
important  of  the  child*s  impulses  were  considered.  Among 
those  enumerated  were  curiosity  and  the  constructive  im- 
pulse. As  to  the  former  of  these  no  discussion  is  neces- 
sary, at  least  as  far  as  the  general  principle  is  concerned. 
All  are  agreed  that  in  the  first  years  of  his  school  life  we 
must  bring  the  child  face  to  face  with  nature  and  man 
because,  among  other  reasons,  he  has  a  desire  to  learn 
about  them.  No  such  agreement  as  to  the  use  to  be  made 
of  his  constructive  impulse  exists.  Judging  by  the  practice 
of  American  schools,  we  are  justified  in  concluding  that 
the  general  opinion  is  that  this  impulse  is  to  be  ignored. 
The  child,  the  very  embodiment  and  personification  of 
action,  the  closest  approximation  to  a  perpetual-motion 
machine  the  world  has  ever  known,  is  to  be  treated  as 
though  his  one  supreme  desire  is  to  sit  still  and  learn ! 

The  Constructive  Impulse. —  How  fundamentally,  fatally 
wrong  this  is  we  shall  begin  to  see  if  we  but  recall  the 
methods  by  which  the  child  has  acquired  the  attainments 
he  possesses  when  he  begins  his  school  life.  When  he 
was  a  baby  in  his  mother's  arms  he  began,  as  we  may  say, 
to  make  a  study  of  his  surroundings.  In  the  nature  of  the 
case  he  had  to  proceed  without  hdp :  no  one  could  assist 

150      , 


HOW   THE   CHILD^S   CAPITAL   IS   TO    BE   INVESTED. 


151 


him  until  he  had  gained  some  knowledge  of  the  meanings 
of  words  and  gestures.  When  his  rudimentary  knowledge 
of  language  made  it  possible  for  others  to  aid  him  by  tell- 
ing him  something  of  the  names  and  properties  of  things, 
the  process  of  learning  about  things  for  himself  went  on 
unremittingly.  We  know  how  the  child  gained  this  knowl- 
edge :  it  was  not  by  passive  observation,  but  through  the 
practical  manipulation  of  things.  The  child*s  play,  as  we 
have  seen,  is  largely  the  gratification  of  his  constructive 
impulses.  It  is  this  play,  this  incessant  handling  of  things, 
this  "  setting  up  and  knocking  down,  this  putting  together 
and  pulling  apart,"  by  which  he  has  been  learning  about 
the  world  before  he  goes  to  school.  Shall  the  school  be 
wiser  than  nature  ?  Shall  it  neglect  an  impulse  which 
under  the  tuition  of  nature  enabled  the  child  to  make  such 
rapid  advances  ?  Shall  the  investigation  and  manipulation 
of  objects  cease  when  his  school  life  begins  ?  Shall  no 
use  be  made  of  his  hands  except  to  hold  a  book  and  a 
pencil  ?  This  is  of  course  equivalent  to  asking  whether 
manual  training  shall  have  a  place  in  the  school,  and  that 
from  the  very  start.  If  the  analysis  already  made  is 
correct,  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  the  answer.  No 
one  calls  in  question  the  value  of  object-teaching.  Object- 
teaching  is  a  continuation  in  the  school  of  the  same  obser- 
vational processes  so  active  in  the  mind  of  the  child  before 
going  to  school.  It  aims  to  extend  the  same  kind  of 
knowledge  that  was  acquired  through  observation  out  of 
school,  and  to  make  that  already  acquired  more  accurate 
and  definite.  On  precisely  similar  grounds  it  is  clear 
that  the  activity  of  the  hands  ought  to  go  on,  that  the 
processes  through  which  the  child  has  already  gained  an 
intimate  and  vivid  sense  of  reality  should  continue  until, 


152  A    BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

perhaps,  they  culminate  in  the  laboratory  of  the  high  school 
and  the  college.  Professor  James  truly  says  that  one  not 
taught  by  these  methods,  one  "  brought  up  exclusively  by 
books,  carries  through  life  a  certain  remoteness  from  real- 
ity ;  he  stands,  as  it  were,  out  of  the  pale,  and  feels  that 
he  stands  so ;  and  often  suffers  a  kind  of  melancholy  from 
which  he  might  have  been  rescued  by  a  more  real  educa- 
tion.'* True  as  this  is  —  and  many  a  bookishly  educated 
man  wonders  how  Professor  James  was  able  to  describe 
this  experience  so  accurately  —  it  is  but  an  approximation 
to  the  whole  truth.  The  man  who  has  been  trained  by 
exclusively  bookish  methods  is  cut  off  from  a  large  and 
significant  part  of  the  life  of  his  fellows.  He  is  like  a 
man  without  an  ear  for  music  trying  to  listen  to  one  of 
Beethoven's  symphonies.  As  such  a  man  hears  only 
noise,  as  he  perceives  no  harmony  or  melody,  so  the  book- 
learned  man  stands  outside  the  industrial  life  of  the  world. 
He  hears  descriptions  of  wireless  telegraphy  and  typeset- 
ting machines,  but  he  does  not  understand  them.  He  has 
not  the  basal  concepts  which  this  comprehension  requires 
and  presupposes. 

Manual  Training  and  Respect  for  Work. — Moreover,  man- 
ual training  tends  to  cultivate  a  respect  for  work.  It  has 
already  been  insisted  on  in  these  pages  that  it  is  the  function 
of  education  to  produce  a  certain  effect  on  the  emotions ; 
that  he  who  puts  a  false  estimate  on  things  lacks  the  essen- 
tial quality  of  an  educated  man.  It  would  be  easy  to  show 
that  havoc  and  confusion  in  life  are  wrought  by  these  false 
estimates,  and  in  no  way,  perhaps,  more  disastrously  than 
in  making  men  feel  that  certain  kinds  of  work  which 
society  requires  for  its  well-being  are  not  respectable.     It 


HOW   THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL   IS   TO   BE   INVESTED.      1 53 

is  interesting  to  note  how  the  ideals  that  ought  to  be  pecu- 
liar to  aristocracies  linger  on  in  democracies.  Clearly  a 
democracy  ought  to  hold  that  whoever  is  worthily  doing 
work  which  the  world  needs  to  have  done  is  an  honorable 
man.  Democracy — the  creed  that  asserts  that  in  an  ideal 
society  each  man  will  do  the  work  in  which  he  can  render 
the  most  effective  service  both  to  himself  and  the  commu- 
nity —  ought  surely  to  hold  that  any  work  that  supplies  a 
real  need  is  honorable.  A  democracy  conscious  of  its  nature 
and  its  ideals  would  surely  hold  higher  in  the  scale  of  worth 
any  necessary  work  than  white-handed  idleness,  however 
refined  it  may  suppose  itself  to  be.  Strange  that  after  all 
the  centuries  since  Plato  wrote  his  Republic  and  Aristotle 
his  Politics  the  world  should  still  need  to  be  told  that  the 
honorable  life  is  a  life  of  labor ! 

This  false  notion  as  to  labor,  and  especially  as  to  the 
comparatively  unrespectable  character  of  manual  labor,  is  a 
powerful  obstacle  to  the  realization  of  the  ideals  of  democ- 
racy. It  crowds  the  professions  with  men  who  ought  to  be 
manual  laborers.  "Mammals  darling  must  never  be  a 
blacksmith'*  —  as  though  a  first-rate  blacksmith  were  not 
a  more  respectable  man  than  a  second-rate  lawyer !  It 
robs  manual  laborers  of  the  consideration  to  which  they 
are  entitled.  It  tends  to  create  and  perpetuate  those  artifi- 
cial class  distinctions,  those  barriers  between  man  and 
man,  which  it  is  the  purpose  of  democracy  to  break  down. 

Now  a  manual-training  course,  taught  by  those  who  pro- 
foundly feel  the  dignity  of  all  true  labor,  would  surely  tend 
to  the  formation  of  a  genuinely  democratic  public  opinion. 
Apart  from  the  influence  of  the  teacher,  such  a  course 
naturally  conduces  to  that  end.  The  boy  in  whom  the 
intellectual  interest  predominates,  working   side   by   side 


154     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

with  one  in  whom  the  impulse  to  make  predominates,  can- 
not help  realizing  his  inferiority  to  the  latter  in  manual 
capacity,  cannot  help  acquiring  some  respect  for  his  work. 
And  the  teacher,  vividly  realizing  the  position  of  present 
forms  of  manual  labor  in  the  development  of  the  race,  and 
clearly  perceiving  the  character  of  its  scientific  basis,  will 
surely  improve  every  opportunity  to  bring  these  thoughts 
home  to  students  of  both  classes,  so  that  both  may  see  and 
feel  that  the  manual  laborer  also  has  his  place  in  that 
development,  that  his  labor  also  can  be  illuminated  by  the 
insight  of  the  mind. 

This,  it  is  evident,  is  the  great  need  of  workers  of  all 
classes.  Whoever  works  simply  for  his  wage,  no  matter 
what  his  work  may  be  or  the  amount  of  compensation  he 
receives  for  it,  is  a  drudge.^  Whoever,  on  the  other  hand, 
realizes  the  relation  of  his  work  to  the  life  of  the  world,  to 
its  historical  life,  to  its  scientific  life,  infuses  his  daily  toil 
with  the  dignity  of  the  mind.  To  do  the  work  of  a  ma- 
chine, with  no  thought  but  of  the  product  and  of  the  wage 
to  be  received  for  it,  is  to  degrade  one's  self  to  the  level  of 
a  machine.  To  do  one's  work,  no  matter  how  mechanical, 
with  a  full  consciousness  of  its  relation  to  the  life  of  the 
past  and  the  present  is  to  live  a  worthy  4ife.  The  motor- 
man  on  the  street-car,  who  knows  only  enough  to  stop  his 
car  and  start  it,  who  never  thinks  of  the  relation  between 

1  In  his  able  and  suggestive  inaugural  address  President  Woodrow 
Wilson  said :  "  We  ought  distinctly  to  set  forth,  in  our  philosophy  of  this 
matter,  the  difference  between  a  man's  preparation  for  the  specific  and 
definite  task  he  is  to  perform  in  the  world  and  that  general  enlargement  of 
spirit  and  release  of  powers  which  he  shall  need  if  his  task  is  not  to  belittle 
him."  To  prevent  the  work  we  have  to  do  in  the  world  from  dwarfing  us, 
to  compel  it  to  become  a  means  of  growth  and  development,  is  one  of  the 
most  important  purposes  of  education. 


HOW   THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL   IS  TO   BE  INVESTED.      1 55 

the  electric  car  and  the  countless  machines  that  link  it 
with  the  time  when  men  knew  no  better  way  than  to 
travel  afoot  and  carry  their  burdens  on  their  shoulders, 
who  never  gives  a  thought  to  the  strange  and  wonderful 
force  which  he  is  constantly  guiding  and  which  obeys  him 
so  implicitly  and  so  unhesitatingly,  lives  a  life,  so  far  as  his 
work  is  concerned,  not  much  above  that  of  the  dog  who 
has  only  sufficient  intelligence  to  fetch  and  carry  at  his 
master's  bidding.  The  motorman,  on  the  other  hand,  with 
the  realization  that  he  is,  so  to  speak,  the  living  embodi- 
ment of  countless  thoughts  about  transportation,  that 
nature  is  obediently  putting  at  his  disposal  one  of  her  mar- 
vellous forces,  that  she  stands  thus  ready  to  do  work 
which  the  world  has  scarcely  dreamed  of  when  she  receives 
the  right  word  of  command,  is  doing  work  which  is  of 
value  in  and  of  itself,  not  simply  because  it  gives  him  a 
living.  To  appreciate  the  significance  of  work,  to  realize 
what  it  represents  in  the  life  of  the  race,  is  to  rob  it  of  its 
legendary  curse.  And  to  help  in  this  direction  is  one  of 
the  functions  of  manual  training.^ 

Manual  Training  Adapts  the  School  to  the  Many.  —  It 

directly  follows  from  this  that  manual-training  courses 
adapt  the  school  to  those  whose  dominant  interest  it  is  to 
do  as  well  as  to  those  whose  dominant  interest  it  is  to 
know.     When  the  history  of  education  in  the  nineteenth 

1  It  is  indeed  true  that  in  this  country,  at  least,  a  motorman  who  puts 
that  kind  of  intelligence  into  his  work  is  almost  certain  of  promotion. 
President  Vreeland,  for  example,  of  the  Metropolitan  Street  Railway  Com- 
pany of  New  York  was,  in  early  manhood,  a  brakeman  on  the  Long  Island 
Railroad.  But  quite  independently  of  that,  the  argument  of  the  text  is  that 
any  legitimate  work  may  be  done  in  such  a  spirit  as  to  make  it  a  thing 
worth  doing  for  its  own  sake. 


156  A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

century  comes  to  be  written  in  the  light  of  the  ideals  of 
the  twentieth,  it  will  surely  seem  remarkable  that  in  a 
large  number  of  the  States  of  the  Union  compulsory-edu- 
cation laws  were  enacted  —  laws  to  compel  those  to  go  to 
school  who  would  stay  away  if  they  could,  while  at  ^e 
same  time  the  training  which  was  thus  forced  upon  them 
was  primarily  adapted  to  those  who  went  to  school  by 
preference.  The  aristocratic  ideals  of  the  Old  World, 
which  in  so  many  particulars  continue  to  dominate  the 
New,  have  shaped  our  courses  of  study  in  the  interests  of 
the  few  who  desire  a  thorough  education,  of  the  small 
minority  in  whom  the  intellectual  interest  is  predominant. 
No  wonder  that  compulsory-education  laws  have  been 
necessary;  that  as  soon  as  the  law  permitted,  the  great 
majority  of  our  boys  and  girls  have  left  an  institution 
whose  work  was  not  primarily  adapted  to  them.  If  our 
public  school  is  indeed  for  the  people,  to  qualify  them  to 
make  the  most  of  themselves  and  life,  it  will  cease  to 
ignore  the  fact  that  the  overwhelming  majority  in  this 
and  in  every  other  country  earn  their  livelihood  by  some 
form  of  manual  labor.  It  will  give  them  such  a  training 
as  will  equip  them  most  completely  for  earning  a  living,  as 
well  as  dignify  their  labor  and  make  it  respectable  in  their 
own  eyes  and  that  of  the  world,  and  with  all  the  more 
earnestness  since,  in  being  adapted  to  the  manual  laborer, 
it  is  none  the  less  adapted  to  the  man  who  has  mainly  an 
intellectual  interest. 

QUESTIONS   ON  THE  TEXT. 

1.  How  has  the  child  acquired  the  attainments  which  he  possesses 
when  he  begins  his  school  life  ? 

2.  Of  what  does  the  child's  play  consist? 


ttOW  tilE  CH1LD*S  CAl^lTAL  tS   TO   BE  INVESTfit).     157 

3.  "  Shall  the  school  be  wiser  than  nature?  "    Explain. 

4.  Show  that  the  same  argument  may  be  made  for  manual  training 
as  for  object  teaching. 

5.  In  what  way  would  manual  training  tend  to  cultivate  a  respect 
for  manual  work  ? 

6.  What  is  the  creed  of  democracy  ? 

7.  In  what  way  does  a  false  notion  as  to  labor  prevent  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  ideals  of  democracy  ? 

8.  "  Whoever  works  simply  for  his  wages  is  a  drudge."     Explain. 

9.  What  is  the  meaning  of  the  sentence  quoted  from  President 
Wilson's  inaugural  address? 

10.  What  is  the  illustration  of  the  motorman  intended  to  show? 

11.  "Manual-training   courses   adapt   the   school    to   those  whose 
dominant  interest  it  is  to  ^<?."     Explain. 

12.  What  is  implied  by  the  aristocratic  ideas  of  the  Old  World? 


SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  In  what  sense  and  to  what  extent  should  we  "  follow  nature  " ? 

2.  What  is  meant  by  **  basal  concepts  "  ? 

3.  What  is  the  relation  of  a  farmer  or  a  watchmaker  to  the  histori- 
cal and  scientific  life  of  the  world  ? 

4.  "  To  do  one's  work,  no  matter  how  mechanical,  with  a  full  con- 
sciousness of  its  relation  to  the  life  of  the  past  and  present  is  to  live 
a  worthy  life."  What  is  the  relation  between  this  statement  and  the 
conclusion  reached  as  to  the  end  of  education  ? 

5.  In  what  ways  may  the  necessity  for  compulsory-education  laws 
be  diminished  ? 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

HOW   THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL   IS   TO    BE    INVESTED:    HIS 
ART,  SOCIAL,  ETHICAL,  AND  EMULATIVE  IMPULSES. 

The  preceding  chapter  sought  to  show  that,  for  a  variety 
of  reasons,  courses  in  manual  training  ought  to  form  a  part 
of  the  work  in  every  grade  of  the  elementary  school.  Of 
the  child's  constructive  impulse,  then,  the  same  conclusions 
hold  as  of  his  curiosity.  The  only  question  we  have  to 
consider  is  the  adaptation  of  manual  training  to  the 
various  stages  of  his  development. 

The  Art  Impulse.  —  No  argument  is  needed  to  show 
the  importance  of  taking  the  child's  art  impulse  into 
account.  For  the  learning  of  memory  gems,  which  is  uni- 
versally required  of  children,  some  justification  is  found  in 
the  fact  that  children  have  the  capacity  to  appreciate  the 
beautiful  in  literature.  What  the  school  needs  to  do  is 
to  recognize  the  art  impulse  of  the  child  in  its  entirety,  to 
treat  it  as  a  thing  which  demands  to  be  brought  into  a 
many-sided  relation  with  life.  Whenever  a  child  does 
a  thing  less  beautifully  than  he  might  have  done  it,  the 
difference  between  what  he  has  done  and  what  he  ought 
to  have  done  should  be  impressed  upon  him.  Tactfully 
and  considerately,  his  dirty  hands  and  soiled  shoes,  his 
disorderly  desk  and  dog-eared  books,  should  be  made  to 
offend  his  aesthetic  sense  so  that  in  its  promptings  the 
teacher  may  find  at  once  an  ally  in  the  maintenance  of 

158 


HOW    THE  CHILD»S   CAPITAL   IS   TO   BE   INVESTED.      1^9 

good  discipline,  and  a  stimulus  to  actions  which  grow  out 
of  the  art  impulse. 

The  Social  Impulse  and  Language  Training.  —  The  so- 
cial impulse  should  be  utilized  in  language  training.  If  we 
remember  that  it  is  society  that  makes  language  possible 
and  useful,  that  the  same  impulse  lies  at  the  foundation  of 
both,  it  will  be  easy  to  get  a  criterion  to  test  the  value  of 
language  training.  In  language  training  only  that  method 
is  wise  which  is  based  upon  the  social  nature  of  the  child. 
Dr.  Dewey  very  aptly  remarks  that  "  there  is  all  the  dif- 
ference in  the  world  between  having  something  to  say  and 
learning  to  say  something.'*  ^  He  who  teaches  the  use  of 
language  by  contriving  that  the  child  shall  know  some- 
thing that  he  wishes  to  say  conforms  to  the  child's  nature ; 
he  who  compels  the  child  to  talk  or  write  without  having 
previously  furnished  a  motive  for  saying  something  does 
violence  to  that  nature.  All  that  is  needed  to  give  the 
child  an  impulse  to  talk  is  to  fill  his  mind  with  facts  that 
interest  him.  You  may  indeed  by  discipUne,  or  by  appeals 
to  emulation  or  to  the  child's  desire  to  please,  create  an 
artificial  motive.  But  discipHne  which  does  not  strengthen 
a  natural  impulse  to  action,  appeals  to  emulation  or  to  the 
desire  to  please  for  the  sake  of  making  a  pupil  do  what  he 
has  no  inclination  to  do  at  all,  are  perverted.  What  a 
child  does  under  such  influences  is  always  done  in  a  half- 
hearted, perfunctory  way. 

This  is  the  reason  why  teaching  language  without  refer- 
ence to  the  other  work  of  the  school  is  absurd.     When 
that  subject  is  taught  apart,  the  child  is  compelled  to  talk 
for  the  sake  of  saying  something ;  when  taught  in  connec- 
1  Dewey,  School  and  Society,  p.  63. 


l6o  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

tion  with  the  child's  work,  the  pupil  is  easily  stimulated  to 
talk  about  what  he  is  interested  in. 

This  kind  of  language  teaching  will  react  on  the  other 
work  of  the  school.  If  the  child  does  not  want  to  talk 
about  his  lessons,  it  is  because  they  are  not  adapted  to  the 
state  of  his  development. 

The  Social  Impulse  and  the  Moral  Nature.  —  It  goes 
without  saying  that  the  child's  social  impulse  should  be 
utilized  in  the  development  of  his  moral  nature.  It  is 
hardly  too  much  to  say  that  without  society,  that  relation 
of  man  to  man  which  is  the  product  of  his  social  nature, 
the  development  of  the  moral  nature  would  be  impossible. 
That  is  the  meaning  of  Aristotle's  paradox  :  "  The  state  is 
prior  to  the  individual."  In  other  words,  apart  from  or- 
ganized society  the  most  distinctive  and  characteristic  ele- 
ments of  human  nature  would  remain  for  the  most  part 
mere  unrealized  possibilities.  It  is  by  contact  with  the 
minds  of  his  fellows  as  manifest  not  only  in  art,  literature, 
history,  government,  but  by  daily  intercourse,  that  the 
individual  gradually  attains  to  a  realization  of  himself. 

Now  it  is  the  constant  duty  of  parents  first,  and  later  of 
parents  and  teacher,  to  see  that  the  child  does  not  infringe 
upon  the  rights  of  others.  Far  wiser  than  Rousseau,  Locke 
saw  that  the  baby  in  its  mother's  arms  could  begin  to  ac- 
quire what  he  rightly  regarded  as  the  most  precious  wis- 
dom of  life,  the  ability  to  cross  one's  own  inclinations  and 
follow  where  reason  directs  even  though  appetite  leads  the 
other  way.  As  has  already  been  said,  the  whole  object  of 
education  is  to  train  the  human  being  so  that  he  will  be 
governed  by  his  reason.  And  the  most  important  feature  in 
elementary  education  consists  in  the  adoption  of  such  meas- 


HOW  THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL  IS  TO   BE  INVESTED.      i6l 

ures  as  will  result  in  the  child's  being  guided  by  another's 
reason  until  he  is  capable  of  being  governed  by  his  own. 
This  must  not,  of  course,  be  construed  as  meaning  that  up 
to  a  certain  point  in  his  development  the  child  will  be  con- 
trolled entirely  by  another's  reason  and  then  wholly  by  his 
own.  The  true  meaning  is  that  there  must  be  a  gradual 
transition  from  the  one  state  to  the  other.  Little  by  little 
he  comes  to  see  the  object  of  the  teacher's  requirements, 
and  in  so  far  as  he  does  he  substitutes  his  reason  for  the 
teacher's.  Now  these  requirements,  growing  out  of  his  own 
nature  and  that  of  the  world  in  which  he  lives,  will  relate 
to  him  not  merely  as  a  physical  and  an  intellectual  but  also 
as  a  moral  being.  And  the  wise  preceptor,  whether  parent 
or  professional  teacher,  will  not  only  see  to  it  that  the  re- 
quirements are  fulfilled,  but  also  that  the  reason  for  them 
is  understood  as  early  as  may  be. 

Rousseau  and  Pestalozzi  on  Moral  Training.  —  One  of 

the  cardinal  blunders  of  that  paradoxical  but  wonderfully 
suggestive  book  on  education,  Rousseau's  fimile,  consists 
in  the  doctrine  that  there  can  be  no  training  of  the  moral 
nature  until  the  adolescent  period.  And  few  things  in  the 
history  of  education  are  more  interesting  than  that  Pesta- 
lozzi, who  received  his  inspiration  from  the  erratic  French- 
man, differed  from  him  so  fundamentally  on  this  point.  In 
his  detailed  account  of  his  epoch-making  experiment  at 
Stanz,  Pestalozzi  shows  us  in  the  most  vivid  way  how  the 
child's  social  impulse  can  be  utilized  in  the  development 
of  his  moral  nature  in  the  early  years  of  school  life. 

"Although,"  as  John  Morley  says,  "none  can  be  vica- 
riously wise,  nor  sage  by  proxy,  yet  is  it  not  a  puerile 
wastefulness   to    send   forth   the   young   all    bare  to  the 


l62     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

ordeal,  while  the  armor  of  old  experience  and  tempered 
judgment  hangs  idle  on  the  wall  ?  '*  So  Pestalozzi  regarded 
it.  In  place  of  the  cold,  apathetic  automaton  that  stands 
by  the  side  of  Rousseau's  fimile,  passionlessly  manipulating 
the  forces  of  nature  in  order  to  suggest  or  inhibit  certain 
conduct,  he  puts  an  earnest,  warm-hearted  human  being, 
kindling  into  flame  the  moral  impulse  of  h's  pupil  through 
his  own  enthusiasm  for  goodness. 

The  Social  Impulse  and  the  Study  of  History.  —  It  is 

the  child's  social  impulse,  his  interest  in  his  fellows  and 
society  generally,  and  his  relation  to  them,  which  justifies 
the  important  place  which  the  study  of  history  should 
occupy  in  the  school.  Not  an  anti-social  being,  as  Rous- 
seau crudely  thought,  but  the  heir  of  all  the  ages,  the 
child  should  get,  even  in  the  elementary  school,  some 
glimpses  of  the  road  over  which  the  race  has  so  laboriously 
travelled,  in  order  that  he  may  get  something  of  that 
enlargement  of  spirit,  that  insight  into  existing  social  con- 
ditions, that  knowledge  of  what  constitutes  the  real  welfare 
of  a  people,  and  that  sympathy  with,  and  charity  for,  his 
fellows  which  are  so  essential  to  rational  living. 

Intellectual,    Constructive,   Art,    and   Social    Impulses 

Contrasted  with  Imitation  and  Emulation A  study  of 

the  child's  intellectual,  constructive,  art,  and  social  im- 
pulses directly  suggests  lines  of  activity  which  lead  to 
important  educational  results.  Because  he  is  curious,  we 
should  teach  him  such  facts  about  the  world  and  about 
men  as  will  at  the  same  time  gratify  and  stimulate  curi- 
osity ;  his  disposition  to  make  things  should  be  encouraged 
because  important  educational  results  are  thereby  obtained  ; 


HOW   THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL   IS   TO   BE    INVESTED.       163 

his  art  impulse  should  be  developed  by  directing  his  atten- 
tion to  beautiful  things,  because  the  appreciation  of  beauty 
is  one  of  the  things  that  make  life  significant ;  his  social 
impulse  should  be  utilized  not  only  by  teaching  him  to 
speak  and  write  in  such  a  way  as  to  gain  the  power  of 
effective  speech,  but  in  leading  him  to  form  habits  that 
will  make  him  a  useful  member  of  society. 

But  the  other  impulses  of  the  child  do  not  of  themselves 
lead  to  any  definite  lines  of  activity.  A  child's  imitative 
impulses  tend  to  make  him  imitate  any  model  that  is  put 
before  him,  good  or  bad ;  his  love  of  superiority  creates 
the  desire  to  excel  his  fellows  in  anything  they  are  doing  ; 
his  love  of  approbation  occasions  the  desire  to  be  com- 
mended by  his  companions  whether  or  not  his  acts  are 
commendable.  What  a  child  does  in  consequence  of  these 
impulses,  then,  depends  not  so  much  on  what  he  is  as  on 
what  his  surroundings  are. 

It  is,  of  course  true  that  the  children  by  whom  he  is 
surrounded  are  giving  expression  to  the  various  impulses 
of  their  nature  in  the  activities  in  which  they  spontaneously 
engage.  And  inasmuch  as  he  and  they  have  a  common 
nature,  the  impulses  which  stimulate  them  to  activity  are 
sure  to  be  shared  by  him.  But  while  children  have  a 
common  nature  in  the  sense  that  all  of  them  have  the 
same  impulses,  they  do  not  have  these  impulses  in  the 
same  degree.  When,  therefore,  it  is  said  that  a  child  in 
consequence  of  certain  impulses  does  what  he  does,  not  so 
much  because  of  what  he  is  as  because  of  what  his  sur- 
roundings are,  the  meaning  is  that  the  impulse  which, 
apart  from  his  surroundings,  would  tend  to  express  itself 
in  those  lines  of   activity  is   tpQ  weak  to  spur   him   to 

action, 


164     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

The  Place  of  Emulation  in  the  School. — If  this  be  true,  it 
seems  evident  that  it  is  the  business  of  the  school  to  utilize 
these  impulses  in  the  education  of  the  child.  If  the  child 
can  be  put  in  a  position  where  his  surroundings  will  make 
him  desire  to  do  what  he  would  not  otherwise  want  to  do ; 
if  he  can  be  brought  into  contact  with  certain  standards  of 
excellence  and,  by  having  his  emulative  impulse  stimulated, 
prompted  to  equal  if  not  surpass  them ;  if,  by  appeals  to 
his  love  of  approbation,  he  can  be  moved  to  do  what  he 
would  not  otherwise  care  to  do,  the  teacher  would  seem  to 
be  making  wise  investment  of  the  child's  capital  —  an  in- 
vestment that  cannot  but  redound  to  his  highest  good. 
Those  who  refuse  to  make  an  appeal  to  such  impulses  say 
in  effect  that  a  part  of  the  child's  nature  is  evil  and  evil 
only,  so  evil  that  to  make  a  wise  use  of  it  in  his  educa- 
tion is  impossible.  At  the  risk  of  wearisome  repetition,  I 
wish  to  point  out  that  those  who  would  rely  entirely  on 
interest  in  the  subject  studied  believe  that  such  impulses 
as  emulation,  the  love  of  approbation,  the  fear  of  punish- 
ment, should  not  be  stimulated  in  the  school.  So  general 
is  this  view  that  to  oppose  it  requires  some  little  courage 
in  one  who  would  fain  be  regarded  as  a  progressive  thinker. 
This  book  maintains  that  the  spirit  of  emulation  may 
properly  be  aroused,  on  the  ground  that  (i)  the  interest 
growing  directly  out  of  the  work  will  not  be  strong  enough 
in  many  cases  to  induce  the  child  to  do  it;  (2)  the  idea  that 
by  a  proper  course  of  training  emulation  can  be  suppressed 
is  absurd ;  (3)  it  is  a  question,  then,  not  of  the  suppression 
of  emulation,  but  of  a  wise  use  of  it.  Utilize  judiciously 
the  spirit  of  emulation  and  you  get  work  better  done  by 
means  of  it  than  you  could  without  it ;  refuse  to  make  use 
gf  itj  and  you  have  only  left  it  to  express  itself  in  ways 


HOW   THE   CHILD'S   CAPITAL   IS   TO   BE   INVESTED.      i6c 

that  have  no  value  for  education.  To  educate  emulation 
out  of  a  human  being  is  neither  possible  nor  desirable.  It 
is  not  possible  because  education  can  neither  make  nor 
suppress  any  impulse.  It  is  not  desirable.  Deal  with  the 
whole  child  in  such  a  way  that  he  will  not  wish  to  emulate 
unworthy  examples.  The  result  will  be  that  his  disposi- 
tion  to  emulate  will  powerfully  cooperate  with  his  better 
nature  to  promote  his  own  best  interests  and  those  of 
society. 

QUESTIONS  ON  THE'' TEXT. 

1.  What  is  meant  by  the  art  impulse,  and  how  may  it  be  utilized 
in  the  school  ? 

2.  Show  by  illustrations  what  the  social  impulse  is,  and  explain 
the  uses  to  which  it  may  be  put  in  the  school. 

3.  What  is  the  relation  between  the  social  impulse  and  the  moral 
nature  ? 

4.  "  The  state  is  prior  to  the  individual."    Explain. 

5.  What  did  Locke  regard  as  the  most  precious  wisdom  in  life? 

6.  What  is  the  most  important  feature  in  elementary  education? 

7.  How  did  Rousseau  and  Pestalozzi  differ  as  to  moral  training? 

8.  What  did  Moseley  mean  by  "  the  armor  of  old  experience"? 

9.  What  is  the  place  of  emulation  in  the  school  ? 
10.  Why  is  it  impossible  to  suppress  emulation? 


SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

I  What  is  the  relation  between  the  cultivation  of  the  art  impulse 
and  the  end  of  education  ? 

2.  Write  an  essay  setting  forth  the  difference  between  yourself  as 
you  are,  and  as  you  would  have  been  if  you  had  been  brought  up 
among  a  tribe  of  savages,  cut  off  from  the  sciences,  art,  and  litera- 
ture of  the  race. 

3.  Froebel  said  that  a  human  being  is  a  member-whole :  that  is, 
that  from  one  point  of  view  he  is  a  member  and  frpm  another  be  is  ^ 
^hol^.    What  do  you  suppose  he  meant  ? 


1 66     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

4.  In  what  way  has  the  telegraph  helped  the  people  of  the  world 
to  realize  that  each  individual  is  a  part  of  a  great  whole  ? 

5.  Can  you  state  the  difference  between  Rousseau's  conception  of 
human  nature  and  Froebel's  ?    Between  FroebePs  and  Aristotle's  ? 

6.  Write  an  essay  on  the  uses  and  abuses  of  emulation. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

THE   COURSE  OF   STUDY   IN   THE   PRIMARY  GRADES. 

The  Foundation  on  Which  the  School  Must  Build.  —  We 
have  seen  that  when  the  child  begins  his  school  life  he  has 
already  gained  considerable  knowledge  of  his  fellows  and 
of  the  world  about  him.  Evidently  one  of  the  things 
which  the  school  must  do  is  to  enlarge  and  deepen  this 
knowledge.  The  thought,  reflection,  and  contemplation  in 
which  with  Aristotle  we  find  a  supreme  end  of  life  must 
relate  either  to  men  or  to  nature ;  the  beauty  in  the  apprecia- 
tion of  which  we  find  another  supreme  end  exists  either  in 
the  world  of  society  or  of  nature;  the  duty  in  the  perfect 
devotion  to  which  we  find  the  highest  end  of  all  is  learned 
through  a  knowledge  of  one's  fellows  and  his  relations  to 
them.  And  all  the  subordinate  ends  of  life  —  health,  the 
intelligent  performance  of  the  duties  of  citizenship,  the 
earning  of  a  livelihood,  the  wise  training  of  children  —  are 
to  be  reached  only  through  obedience  to  laws  resultmg 
from  a  knowledge  of  these  two  worlds. 

The  knowledge,  then,  of  men  and  things  which  the  child 
of  six  has  when  he  first  goes  to  school  furnishes  the  foun- 
dation upon  which  we  must  build.  This  foundation,  as  Co- 
menius  long  ago  pointed  out,  includes  some  knowledge, 
vague  and  rudimentary  as  it  of  course  is,  of  nearly  all 
the  sciences.  Shall  we,  as  seems  to  be  recommended  by 
high  authorities,  take  no  account  of  this  knowledge  and  of 
the  methods  by  which  he  acquired  it  when  the  child  first 

167 


1 68     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

becomes  a  pupil  ?  Surely  the  methods  by  which  he  has 
made  his  acquisitions  should  not  be  ignored.  The  chief 
difference  between  the  child's  life  in  school  and  his  life 
previous  to  the  school  age  (supposing  that  it  was  whole- 
some) should  be  that  the  school  should  have  him  do 
consciously  and  systematically  what  before  he  did  blindly 
and  unsystematically.  Armed  with  all  the  resources  of 
child  psychology,  the  school  should  surround  the  child 
with  such  influences  that  those  original  investigations  by 
which  he  has  gained  a  large  part  of  his  acquisitions  may 
not  only  continue  but  bear  the  richest  fruit  possible,  and 
this  fruit  not  only  in  the  form  of  immediate  results,  but  of 
a  growing  love  of  study.  The  child's  curiosity,  let  it  be 
repeated,  is  his  intellectual  capital.  Wisely  invested  it  will 
yield  compound  interest ;  it  will  grow  and  grow  so  as,  under 
favorable  circumstances,  to  make  him  an  inquirer  all  his 
life.  Not  only  so  :  the  knowledge  implanted  by  the  school 
should  be  most  carefully  adapted  to  his  state  of  develop- 
ment. It  should  as  far  as  possible  bear  on  his  original 
investigations.  These  should  whet  his  appetite  for  second- 
hand knowledge  ;  this  in  turn  should  stimulate  his  curiosity  : 
it  should  both  broaden  his  vision  of  the  world  and  intensify 
his  desire  to  know  more  of  it.  The  school  itself,  however, 
cannot  do  much  to  help  the  child  acquire  a  first-hand 
knowledge  of  men.  His  schoolmates  and  playmates,  his 
parents,  brothers,  and  sisters,  the  teacher  herself,  will 
constantly  furnish  material  for  this  kind  of  knowledge. 
Perhaps  the  chief  thing  the  school  can  do  in  this  direction 
is  to  determine  to  some  extent  the  kind  of  material  pre- 
sented to  him.  By  its  discipline  the  school  can  exert  a 
great  influence,  and  it  can  also  do  something  towards 
determining  the  character  of  his  associations  out  of  sghool 


COURSE   OF   STUDY   IN   THE   PRIMARY   GRADES.      1 69 

—  in  other  words,  the  sort  of  knowledge  of  his  fellows  which 
he  will  acquire.  But  from  the  beginning  the  school  should 
determine  the  sources  whence  his  further  acquisitions  of 
second-hand  knowledge  of  men  are  to  be  derived.^ 

Reading  and  Story-telling.  —  Important,  however,  as  is 
this  work — and  it  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  its 
importance,  —  the  school  should  by  no  means  rest  content 
with  it.  The  teacher  should  at  once  begin  to  read  to  the 
child  any  easy  selections  and  relate  to  him  any  simple 
stories  in  which  she  can  interest  him  —  not  only  those 
about  the  heroic  figures  who  have  played  a  great  part  on 
the  world*s  stage,  but  those  of  common  men  and  women 
as  narrated  in  the  daily  papers,  showing  that  even  humble 
laboring  men  may  also  be  cast  in  the  mould  of  heroes. 

Language  Lessons. — If  these  are  made  the  basis  of  lan- 
guage study,  not  only  will  it  have  a  scientific  foundation, 
but  it  will  add  to  the  educational  value  of  reading  and 
story-telling.  The  more  completely  these  become  a  part 
of  the  very  life  of  the  child,  the  better  they  will  accom- 
plish their  purpose ;  the  more,  on  the  other  hand,  his 
mind  is  active  about  them,  the  more  they  will  enter  into 
the  very  warp  and  woof  of  his  being.  Hence  it  happens 
that  by  gratifying,  under  guidance,  his  social  impulse  he 
is  strengthening  his  intellectual  impulse. 

Nature  Study.  —  The  stories  and  readings,  and  the  lan- 
guage lessons  in  conjunction  with  them,  will  occupy  but  a 

1  This  requires  the  intelligent  cooperation  of  parent-  and  librarians.  **  It 
is  said  on  good  authority  that  some  years  ago  the  librarian  of  Worcester, 
JIsiss.,  S.  S,  Green,  §ucc^e(le4  in  cpnnecting  the  schools  50  closely  ynXk  tb§ 


lyO     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

small  part  of  the  child's  time.  Some  of  the  time  remaining 
should  be  devoted  to  a  first-hand  study  of  nature.  When 
the  weather  permits,  a  considerable  part  of  this  study 
should  be  done  out  of  doors.  Such  work  in  the  company 
of  a  devoted,  enthusiastic  teacher,  a  teacher  who  is  a  close 
observer  of  nature  and  also  a  lover  of  children,  will  do 
more  to  quicken  their  observing  powers  than  can  be  done 
in  any  other  way.  This  work  also  should  be  made  the 
basis  of  language  lessons. 

Drawing.  —  We  have  noted  the  great  activity  of  the 
constructive  impulse.  One  of  the  forms  in  which  this  im- 
pulse manifests  itself  is  in  the  attempt  to  draw  things. 
Observers  of  children  tell  us  that  this  impulse  begins  to 
show  itself  at  a  very  early  age.  It  hardly  needs  to  be 
said  that  manifold  educational  results  can  be  obtained  by 
its  direction  and  guidance.  Most  of  the  arguments  ad- 
duced for  manual  training  can  be  urged  in  favor  of  draw- 
ing. Besides,  drawing  cultivates  the  powers  of  observation 
and  strengthens  the  memory  of  natural  objects,  their  pre- 
cise appearance,  size,  shape,  etc.  How  valuable  all  this  is 
for  purposes  of  thought  is  self-evident.  A  large  part  of 
the  material  of  thought  is  furnished  by  our  sense-impres- 
sions, and  the  more  definite  these  are  the  clearer  will  be 
the  thinking  that  is  based  upon  them.  Besides  an  accurate 
knowledge  of  natural  objects  greatly  increases  our  power 
to  enjoy  literature,  a  considerable  part  of  which  deals 
with  these ;  and  the  more  vivid  the  images  of  the  objects 
referred  to  by  it  the  greater  will  be  our  capacity  to  appre- 
ciate it.     Moreover,  such  knowledge  is  a  source  of  keen 

library  that  he  and  the  teachers  controlled  the  reading  of  the  whole  rising 
generation  of  the  city."     (Hinsdale,  Art  qf  Study,  p.  68.) 


COURSE   OF  STUDY  IN  THE  PRIMARY   GRADES.     17I 

aesthetic  enjoyment  in  another  direction.  Cowper  said 
that  there  was  not  a  sound  in  nature  that  it  did  not  give 
him  a  pleasure  to  hear ;  not  excepting,  even,  the  cackHng 
of  a  goose.  He  probably  meant  that  so  closely  associated 
with  the  recollections  of  early  childhood  were  these  sounds 
that  the  recalling  them  was  a  source  of  pleasure. 

Drawing  may  help  to  fill  the  mind  with  visual  images 
that  have  a  similar  relation  to  the  memories  of  childhood. 
Who  is  there  that  has  left  the  home  of  his  boyhood,  never 
to  return,  that  does  not  regret  that  he  cannot  recall  the 
precise  look  of  the  old  trees,  the  maples  that  stood  in  the 
yard,  the  cedars  and  walnuts  along  the  lane,  the  brook  and 
the  rough  boards  across  it,  the  bends  in  the  country  roads 
—  every  detail  that  may  help  the  scenes  of  his  childhood 
to  live  again  in  his  memory  ? 

Drawing  also,  like  manual  training,  may  be  used  to 
increase  the  interest  of  children  in  the  more  purely  intellec- 
tual work  of  the  school.  **Take,"  as  Mr.  Tadd  says,  '*a 
rural  school  where  the  children  get  a  little  reading,  writ- 
ing, and  arithmetic,  in  homoeopathic  doses,  and  very  little 
of  anything  else.  See  what  glorious  possibilities  there  are 
here  if  the  teachpr  has  any  idea  of  drawing  as  it  should  be 
taught.  Right  at  the  door  is  the  whole  field  of  nature ; 
plants,  flowers,  insects,  animals,  stones,  fruits,  vegetables, 
can  be  produced  without  any  trouble.  The  children  are 
delighted  to  bring  almost  anything  in  the  way  of  models  of 
this  kind.  If  they  are  near  the  seashore,  the  boys  can  get 
endless  forms  of  life  in  the  way  of  seaweeds,  shells,  crabs, 
fish,  etc.  These  forms  can  be  drawn  and  the  reading, 
writing  and  arithmetic,  and  other  studies,  hung  on  as  inci- 
dentals. The  children  will  be  fascinated  and  inspired  at 
first   hand.     They   will   take   an    added    interest  in  their 


lya     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

work,  especially  when  the  doors  of  their  minds  are  opened, 
and  the  things  of  which  they  see  so  much  and  know  so 
little  are  transformed  for  them.**  * 

Music,  Physical  Culture,  and  Manual  Training.  —  Sing- 
ing and  lessons  in  vocal  music,  physical  culture,  and  manual 
training  should  also  form  a  part  of  the  exercises  of  the 
school  from  the  start.  The  argument  for  manual  training 
has  already  been  stated.  Singing  should  be  included  in  the 
exercises,  not  only  in  order  to  develop  the  musical  capacity 
of  the  pupils,  but  because  of  its  bearing  on  discipline  and 
the  general  tone  of  the  school.  Vocal  music  should  be 
taught  for  similar  reasons,  and  also  because  children  are  as 
competent  to  learn  the  elements  of  music  when  they  first 
begin  going  to  school  as  they  ever  are.  They  should 
receive  physical  culture  for  the  sake  of  health  and  grace- 
fulness, and  also  because,  affording  as  it  does  scope  for  the 
exercise  of  the  active  propensities,  it  adds  to  the  interest 
of  the  school. 

Number  Lessons*  —  Lessons  in  number  should  likewise 
form  a  part  of  the  work  of  the  child  during  his  first  year 
at  school.  These  lessons  should  be  connected  with,  and 
be  primarily  for  the  sake  of,  the  other  work  he  is  engaged 
in. 

Distribution  of  Time.  —  We  have  now  covered  the  work 
that  seems  proper  to  be  undertaken  during  the  first  school 
year :  reading,  writing,  language  lessons,  number  work, 
nature  study,  stories,  easy  literature,  physical  culture, 
manual  training,  singing,  vocal  music,  and  drawing.  How 
1  Tadd,  New  Method  in  Education. 


COURSE  OF  STUDY  IN  THE  PRIMARY  GRADES.      173 

shall  the  time  of  the  child  be  distributed  among  these  vari- 
ous subjects  ? 

The  Committee  of  Fifteen  recommended  two  lessons  a 
day  in  reading  and  two  in  writing,  each  fifteen  minutes 
long ;  an  oral  lesson  in  language,  one  in  arithmetic,  one  in 
general  history,  and  one  in  natural  science,  each  twelve 
minutes  in  length ;  an  exercise  in  physical  culture,  one  in 
vocal  music,  and  one  in  drawing,  these  averaging  twelve 
minutes  each  —  making  in  all  two  hours  and  twenty-four 
minutes  as  the  total  time  occupied  in  class  exercises. 
They  made  no  mention  of  literature  as  distinct  from  read- 
ing, or  of  singing  as  distinct  from  vocal  music,  or  of  man- 
ual training.  If  we  add  these  exercises,  and  give  to  each 
of  the  first  two  twelve  minutes,  and  to  the  last  an  hour, 
we  shall  have  provided  for  about  all  of  the  time  in  school, 
assuming  that  a  daily  period  of  four  hours  is  sufficient 
during  the  child's  first  school  year,  and  that  the  other  rec- 
ommendations of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen  are  accepted 
without  modification. 

Young  Children's  Need  of  Supervision.  —  But  it  may  be 

said  that  this  leaves  the  child  no  time  to  work  by  himself, 
and  that  if  he  does  all  his  work  under  supervision,  he 
will  not  acquire  the  power  of  independent  work.  This 
question  has  been  ably  discussed  by  the  late  Professor 
Hinsdale  in  his  "Art  of  Study."  He  insists  with  great 
emphasis  on  what  no  one  will  question  —  that  when  chil- 
dren begin  to  attend  school  they  do  not  know  how  to 
study,  and  that  their  first  work,  therefore,  should  be  done 
under  direction  and  supervision.  To  say  that  because  a 
teacher  is  moving  about  among  her  pupils,  making  a  sug- 
gestion to  this  one  and  to  that,  they  will  not  acquire  the 


174     ^   BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

power  of  independent  work,  presupposes  that  she  will  give 
them  assistance  when  they  ought  not  to  have  it.  But 
there  is  no  ground  for  that  presupposition.  We  should 
not  condemn  an  educational  theory  as  unsound  because 
poorly  trained  teachers  cannot  apply  it.  Such  a  judgment 
would  bar  the  path  to  every  improvement  in  education. 
A  wise  superintendent,  appreciating  the  fact  that  his  pri- 
mary teachers  are  unable  wisely  to  devote  all  their  time  to 
a  single  class  of  students,  would  not  require  this  until  he 
had  qualified  them  for  it  by  careful  training.  But  there  is 
surely  a  wide  difference  between  maintaining  that  a  given 
primary  teacher  will  do  more  effective  work  by  dividing 
her  time  among  two  or  more  classes,  and  contending  that 
a  properly  trained  primary  teacher  cannot  best  promote 
the  interests  of  her  pupils  by  devoting  all  her  time  to  a 
single  class. 

The  Economic  Difficulty.  —  Some  people  who  are  con- 
vinced by  this  argument  may  urge  the  economic  difficulty. 
They  may  say  that  boards  of  education  cannot  be  pre- 
vailed on  to  employ  primary  teachers  enough  to  carry  out 
this  plan.  Of  course  if  they  will  not,  they  will  not.  But 
if  they  are  amenable  to  reason  they  can  readily  be  made 
to  see  that  their  attitude  is  a  block  to  progress  —  that  the 
schools  under  their  control,  at  least  with  regard  to  the 
primary  grades,  will  only  "mark  time.'*  It  was  only  in 
the  last  century  that  the  economic  difficulty  seemed  to  al- 
most every  people  an  insurmountable  obstacle  in  the  path 
of  popular  education.  But  little  by  little  the  world  is  be- 
ginning to  see  that  whatever  the  interests  of  the  rising 
generation  demand  must  be  made  possible;  that  every- 
thing is   secondary  in  importance  to   giving  to  children 


COURSE   OF   STUDY  IN  THE  PRIMARY   GRADES.     1 75 

such  an  education  as  will  enable  them  to  make  the  most 
of  themselves  in  the  world.  Once  convince  a  man  that 
the  school  is  an  institution  by  means  of  which  society- 
undertakes  to  bring  about  a  realization  of  its  ideals,  and 
you  have  gone  a  long  way  towards  wringing  from  him  the 
admission  that  whatever  it  requires  for  its  most  effective 
work  must  be  furnished. 

Second-year  Work. — The  work  of  the  second  year  should 
be  of  the  same  general  character  as  that  of  the  first.  The 
child  should  be  able  to  read  by  the  end  of  the  first  year. 
The  additional  hour  that  he  may  be  required  to  spend  in 
school  each  day  may  be  occupied  in  reading  at  his  seat, 
with  the  exception  of  a  short  period  that  might  be  devoted 
to  an  oral  lesson  in  geography. 

QUESTIONS   ON   THE   TEXT. 

1.  What  are  the  worlds  with  which  the  child  has  some  acquaint- 
ance when  he  begins  his  school  life.? 

2.  What  is  meant  by  "  first-hand  knowledge  of  men,"  and  what,  in 
the  case  of  the  child,  is  the  source  of  it? 

3.  What  can  the  school  do  in  the  way  of  determining  the  charac- 
ter of  the  child's  second-hand  knowledge  of  men  ? 

4.  How  may  readings  and  stories  and  nature  study  be  made  the 
basis  of  language  lessons  ? 

5.  What  purpose  is  served  by  the  teaching  of  drawing  ? 

6.  Why  should  singing  be  included  in  the  exercises  of  the  primary 
school  ? 

7.  What  follows  from  the  fact  that  young  children  do  not  know 
how  to  study  ? 

8.  Reply  to  the  economic  objection  to  giving  children  in  the 
primary  grades  the  entire  time  of  their  teacher. 

SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 
I.   Show  that  the   child    has  a  rudimentary  acquaintance  with 
astronomy,    zoology,    physiology,    botany,    chemistry,    psychology, 
meteorology,  and  history  when  he  enters  school. 


176    A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCAtlON. 

2.  Show  from  your  own  observation  that  children  can  be  interested 
in  readings  and  stories  as  early  as  the  first  year  of  their  school  life. 

3.  Through  what  law  of  the  mind  does  the  enthusiasm  of  a 
teacher  influence  her  pupils? 

4.  "  A  large  part  of  the  material  of  thought  is  furnished  by  our 
sense-impressions."  Will  you  show  by  illustrations  that  a  part  of  the 
material  of  thought  comes  from  another  source  ? 

5.  Illustrate  the  relation  between  an  accurate  knowledge  of 
objects  and  the  enjoyment  of  literature. 

6.  Why  ought  the  school  from  the  beginning  to  aim  at  developing 
the  capacity  to  enjoy  literature  ? 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

SHOULD    READING   AND    WRITING   BE   TAUGHT 
BEFORE   THE   AGE   OF   TEN? 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  discussed  the  course  of 
study  in  the  primary  grades  from  what  may  be  termed  the 
traditional  point  of  view.  But  high  authorities  claim  that 
reading,  as  well  as  writing  and  other  processes  involving 
precise  measurements,  should  not  be  taught  before  the 
child  is  ten  years  of  age.  Before  stating  the  argument  of 
the  reformers  in  the  case  of  reading,  it  is  desirable  to 
make  a  distinction.  Reading  for  the  sake  of  reading  is 
one  thing ;  reading  for  the  sake  of  getting  knowledge  is 
quite  another.  And  it  is  evident  that  perfectly  conclusive 
arguments  against  the  teaching  of  reading  in  the  one 
sense  may  have  no  weight  whatever  against  the  teaching 
of  reading  in  the  other. 

It  is  Argued  that  Reading  should  not  be  Taught  Before 
Ten  Because  (i)  the  Function  of  Books  is  Supplementary. — 

It  is  urged  that  it  is  a  mistake  to  teach  reading  before  ten 
for  the  sake  of  getting  information,  because  the  function  of 
books  is  supplementary  —  to  supply  second-hand  knowledge 
when  first-hand  cannot  be  obtained  —  and  that  the  learning 
about  things  for  himself  is  the  best  use  the  child  can  make 
of  his  time  during  the  first  ten  years  of  his  life.  This  ar- 
gument is  defective  in  two  particulars.  In  the  first  place 
it  overlooks  the  influence  which  second-hand   knowledge 

177 


178    A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

may  exert  on  the  child's  desire  to  acquire  knowledge  for 
himself.  That  this  influence  is  very  powerful  is  proved  by 
the  universal  experience  not  only  of  grown-up  people  but 
of  children.  In  the  second  place  it  assigns  no  reason  for 
limiting  to  ten  years  the  period  during  which  the  child 
shall  be  entirely  occupied  in  gaining  first-hand  knowledge. 
That  before  information  can  be  got  from  books  the  child 
must  have  learned  many  things  for  himself  ;  that,  when  he 
is  able  to  acquire  knowledge  by  reading,  it  may  be  desirable 
for  him  to  be  confined  entirely  to  first-hand  knowledge,  is 
not  questioned.  But  precisely  how  long  after  the  child's 
development  makes  it  possible  for  him  to  enlarge  his  ex- 
periences by  reading  must  we  wait  before  teaching  him  to 
read  }  Evidently  those  who  say  until  he  is  ten  years  old 
answer  the  question  just  as  arbitrarily  as  it  is  answered  by 
current  practice.  We  can  determine  whether  it  is  wiser  to 
teach  the  child  to  read  at  ten  than  at  six  only  by  prolonged 
and  careful  experimental  study.  Only  by  the  careful  com- 
parison of  multitudes  of  children  who  have  been  taught  to 
read  at  six  with  equal  numbers  of  those  with  whom  the 
process  has  been  deferred  until  ten  can  any  one  say  that 
those  who  spend  the  first  ten  years  of  their  lives  in  enlarg- 
ing their  experiences  at  first  hand  have  been  the  more 
wisely  trained. 

(2)  Because  the  Child  has  no  <«  Natural  Desire  to  Learn  to 
Read." — The  claim  that  reading  is  a  process  distinct  in  it- 
self, that  it  is  not  a  thing  that  a  child  "takes  to  naturally,*' 
and  that  therefore  it  should  not  be  taught  before  the  child 
is  ten,  rests  on  different  grounds.  It  may  at  once  be 
granted  that  if  reading  is  dissociated  from  the  gaining  of 
information,  if  it  is  taught  merely  as  a  translation  of  a  lot  of 


READING  AND  WRITING   BEFORE  THE  AGE  OF  TEN.    179 

visual  symbols  into  sound  symbols  —  not  for  the  purpose 
of  getting  the  thought  that  such  symbols  may  signify,  —  no 
child  ever  learns  to  read  because  he  has  a  desire  to,  unless 
that  desire  results  from  his  association  with  those  who  do. 
We  have  already  had  occasion  to  note  that  the  child's  im- 
pulses may  be  put  into  two  classes :  those  that  grow  out 
of  his  own  nature  independently  of  his  environment,  and 
those  that  grow  out  of  and  depend  upon  his  social  nature. 
Now  when  a  child  sees  other  people  reading,  his  imitative 
propensities  make  him  want  to  do  likewise.  In  that  sense 
a  child  may  have  a  desire  to  learn  to  read  when  learning  to 
read  is  not  associated  with  the  acquiring  of  knowledge.  In 
that  case,  however,  a  child  wishes  to  learn  to  read  simply 
because  he  sees  other  people  reading.  But  in  the  very 
same  sense  it  is  equally  true  that  the  child  of  ten,  or,  for 
that  matter,  the  young  man  of  twenty,  has  no  desire  to 
learn  to  read.  Indeed  it  may  be  said  that  the  older  the 
child  the  more  impossible  it  becomes  for  him  to  have  such 
a  desire.  Reading  is  a  means  to  an  end,  and  the  inherent 
rationality  of  human  nature  makes  it  impossible  for  us  to 
have  a  desire  to  use  a  means  apart  from  an  end  it  is  fitted 
to  reach.  When  a  human  being,  child  or  man,  seeks  to  at- 
tain a  certain  object,  he  at  once  has  an  interest  in  what  he 
perceives  to  be' the  means  of  reaching  it.  To  dissociate 
the  teaching  of  reading  from  the  end  that  makes  it  val- 
uable —  the  enrichment  of  the  experience  of  the  individual 
by  the  experience  of  his  fellows  —  and  then  object  to  that 
teaching  until  the  child  is  ten  because  till  then  he  has  no 
natural  desire  to  learn  to  read,  is  surely  a  curious  stand. 
Man  has  been  called  a  tool-using  animal.  But  if  you  put 
him  in  a  situation  where  he  must  use  his  tools,  if  at  all,  for 
the  mere  pleasure  of  using  them,  where  he  can  produce 


l8o     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

nothing  with  them,  hammer  and  saw  and  chisel  will  remain 
untouched. 

(3)  Because  Reading  is  a  Recent  Accomplishment  of  the 
Race.  —  It  is  said  again  that  reading  is  a  comparatively 
recent  accomplishment  of  the  race  —  that  ages  and  ages 
before  it  read,  it  talked.  From  this  it  is  inferred  that  the 
child,  who  is  supposed  to  reproduce  in  his  experience  the 
main  features  of  the  life  of  the  race,  should  talk  a  long 
time  before  he  is  taught  to  read. 

This  argument,  when  adduced  to  prove  that  we  should 
wait  until  the  child  is  ten  before  we  teach  him  to  read, 
is  found  to  contain  the  same  fallacy  as  the  one  first  con- 
sidered. What  it  proves  is  that  some  time,  indefinite  in 
length,  should  elapse  after  the  child  has  learned  to  talk 
before  he  is  taught  to  read ;  what  it  is  assumed  to  prove  is 
that  this  time  is  a  determinate  period. 

(4)  Because  of  the  Development  of  the  Nervous  Sys- 
tem. —  Another  argument  in  favor  of  the  proposed  reform 
is  based  on  the  development  of  the  nervous  system.  It  is 
assumed  that  the  cerebral  centres  used  in  reading  are  dif- 
ferent from  those  used  in  speaking,  and  that  the  former 
mature  much  more  slowly  than  the  latter.  Now  if  the 
facts  as  to  the  nervous  system  were  as  the  argument 
assumes,  then  they  would  not  prove  what  they  are  adduced 
to  prove,  for  the  reason  assigned  in  the  preceding  para- 
graph. But  the  facts  themselves  are  in  doubt.  All  that  is 
known  about  the  intricacies  of  the  nervous  system  is  of  the 
nature  of  surmises  which  give  a  more  or  less  plausible  ex- 
planation of  certain  phenomena.  That  the  function  of 
speech  is  intimately  connected  with  a  certain  part  of  the 


READING  AND  WRITING  BEFORE  THE  AGE  OF  TEN.    i8l 

brain  we  may  regard  as  highly  probable;  that  reading 
depends  upon  a  different  centre  is  by  no  means  so  certain. 
Moreover,  this  argument,  in  common  with  the  preced- 
ing, has  to  reckon  with  a  multitude  of  indisputable  facts 
proving  that  children  do  learn  to  read  at  a  very  early  age 
without  any  apparent  injury  to  their  health.  When  they 
can  read  fluently  at  seven  it  is  a  proof  that  the  nervous 
mechanism  at  that  age  is  so  far  developed  as  to  make 
reading  possible.  The  argument,  then,  falls  unless  it  can 
be  demonstrated  that  the  health  of  children  has  suffered. 
That  has  not  yet  been  done. 

(5)  Because  the  Fundamental  Muscles  Develop  before 
the  Accessory. — It  is  urged  also  that  the  child  should  not 
be  taught  to  write  before  the  age  of  ten  because  his  writ- 
ing mechanism  is  not  fully  developed,  and  that  exercise 
will  interfere  with  its  growth  and  fix  unnatural  habits  on 
its  plastic  elements.  In  a  word,  a  theory  has  been  carried 
over  from  the  biological  workshop  to  determine  practice  in 
respect  to  writing  and  drawing.  This  theory  is  that  the 
child  develops  the  power  to  use  the  main  or  "fundamentar* 
muscles,  those  of  the  arm,  for  example,  before  the  "acces- 
sory '*  muscles  like  those  of  the  fingers ;  it  is  based  upon 
many  facts  of  embryology  and  observations  of  infants. 
But  it  is  one  thing  to  prove  that,  since  the  movements  of 
the  arm  are  more  fundamental  than  those  of  the  fingers, 
writing,  which  makes  demands  on  the  fingers,  must  not  be 
taught  until  after  the  child  has  had  sufficient  experience 
with  the  fundamental  movements,  and  quite  another  that 
this  experience  cannot  be  acquired  until  the  child  is  ten 
years  of  age.  Besides,  it  is  a  matter  of  common  observa- 
tion that  infants  at  birth  use  their  fingers  for  grasping,  and 


1 82  A    BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

soon  begin  to  use  the  index-finger  for  poking  at  holes,  etc. 
Now  when  we  know  by  observation  that  very  young  chil- 
dren take  to  some  delicate  movements  and  prosecute  them 
persistently,  the  question  as  to  the  age  when  it  is  proper  to 
require  them  to  perform  the  movements  used  in  writing  is 
obviously  one  of  fact,  to  be  determined  only  by  actual  trial. 

Objections  Summarized.  —  From  three  points  of  view  we 
may  sum  up  the  arguments  against  the  traditional  prac- 
tice in  teaching  reading  and  writing.  We  are  told  that 
we  should  not  teach  these  subjects  to  the  child  of  six 
because  he  is  not  equal  to  the  strain.  But,  in  the  first 
place,  he  evidently  stands  the  strain ;  and,  in  the  second 
place,  those  who  decry  the  injury  to  health  from  reading 
and  writing  tell  us  to  employ  him  in  paper-cutting,  paper- 
folding,  clay-modelling,  etc. — as  if  these  things  required  no 
effort !  One  cannot  help  wondering  whether  the  ardor  of 
the  reformers  is  not  due  quite  as  much  to  a  disposition  to 
assume  that  what  is  traditional  is  wrong  as  to  the  strength 
of  the  arguments  in  favor  of  their  contention. 

Again,  it  is  argued  that  it  is  better  to  defer  teaching 
reading  and  writing  until  the  child  is  ten  because  he  can 
then  acquire  these  arts  with  so  much  more  facility  as  to 
effect  a  wise  economy  of  time.  To  this  we  can  only 
reply  with  the  Scotch  verdict,  "Not  proven."  No  one 
knows  how  much  more  easily  a  child  could  learn  to  read 
and  write  in  consequence  of  additions  to  his  stock  of 
knowledge.  It  would  surely  be  presumptuous  to  assume 
that  the  traditional  practice  is  in  perfect  accord  with  the 
nature  of  the  child ;  but  it  is  almost  equally  presumptuous 
to  assume  that  departure  from  it  in  a  definite  and  arbitra- 
rily assumed  way  is  any  more  rational. 


READING  AND  WRITING   BEFORE  THE  AGE  OF  TEN.    183 

"Old  things  may  not,  therefore,  be  true: 
No,  brother  man,  nor  yet  the  new. 
O  yet  awhile  the  old  thought  retain, 
And  yet  consider  it  again." 

Practical  Argument  in  Favor  of  Current  Practice.  —  So 

far  the  question  has  been  considered  from  the  point  of 
view  of  educational  philosophy.  From  that  of  educational 
statesmanship  the  question  does  not  admit  of  debate. 
However  true  it  might  be  that,  so  far  as  the  nature  of 
children  is  concerned,  it  would  be  better  to  wait  until 
they  are  ten  before  teaching  them  reading  and  writing, 
we  are  confronted  with  conditions  that  make  it  absurd 
to  consider  the  question  in  connection  with  the  American 
public  school.  In  spite  of  our  compulsory-education  laws, 
the  education  which  a  large  number,  perhaps  a  majority, 
of  American  children  receive  they  get  before  they  are 
ten  years  old.  To  have  them  wait  until  they  are  ten 
before  learning  to  read  and  write  would  be  to  have  them 
wait  forever. 

Relation  Between  the  Real  and  the  Ideal.  —  It  does  not 
follow,  therefore,  that  the  consideration  of  the  question  is 
without  value.  Far  from  it.  There  is  nothing  that  the 
world  needs  so  much  to  know  as  how  to  educate  the  child 
most  wisely.  And  anything  that  tends  to  make  us  open- 
minded,  to  make  us  substitute  the  attitude  of  intelligent 
inquiry  for  that  of  narrow-minded  dogmatism,  is  helpful. 
If  the  ideally  wise  is  not  the  practically  possible  course,  we 
have  a  supreme  interest  in  knowing  what  the  wise  course 
is  in  order  to  do  all  that  we  may  to  transform  real  conditions 
into  those  that  are  ideal.  The  idealist  may  see  never  so 
clearly  that  he  must  come  to  terms  with  existing  conditions. 


184     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

But  he  knows  also  that  existing  conditions  must  come  to 
terms  with  the  ideal;  that  in  the  never-ending  struggle 
between  the  real  and  the  ideal,  although  the  real  is  always 
victorious,  the  ideal  is  unconquerable ;  that  ideals  are  im- 
mortal, while  the  real  of  to-day  dies  to  give  place  to  a  new 
ideal  to-morrow ;  that  each  new  real,  in  the  course  of  time, 
must  meet  the  fate  of  its  predecessors  and  give  place  to  a 
real  which  is  a  closer  approximation  to  the  ideal 


QUESTIONS  ON  THE  TEXT. 

1.  What  is  meant  by  saying  that  the  function  of  books  is 
supplementary  ? 

2.  State  and  criticise  the  argument  that  is  based  upon  this. 

3.  How  are  we  to  ascertain  when  the  child  should  begin  to  supple- 
ment his  first-hand  with  second-hand  knowledge  ? 

4.  State  and  examine  the  argument  that  is  based  upon  the  ground 
that  the  child  has  no  natural  desire  to  learn  to  read. 

5.  State  and  illustrate  the  two  classes  into  which  the  child*s  im- 
pulses may  be  put. 

6.  What  is  it  that  makes  reading  valuable? 

7.  Point  out  the  fallacy  of  the  argument  that  is  based  {a)  on  the 
ground  that  reading  is  a  recent  accomplishment  of  the  race :  {b)  on 
the  character  of  the  development  of  the  nervous  system. 

8.  What  is  meant  by  *' fundamental "  and  "accessory"  muscles? 
Illustrate  your  answer. 

9.  State  the  argument  that  is  based  on  the  development  of  fun- 
damental before  accessory  muscles. 

10.  Summarize  the   arguments  against  the  traditional  practice  of 
teaching  reading  and  writing. 

11.  What  benefits  result  from  such  a  discussion  ? 

12.  State  the  practical  argument  in  favor  of  the  current  practice. 

SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

I.  Show  that  a  child  must  have  some  first-hand  knowledge  before 
he  can  be  taught  to  read,  but  that  the  question  as  to  how  much  he 
must  have  can  only  t)^  d?teripi»ed  by  experience. 


READING  AND  WRITING  BEFORE  THE  AGE  OF   TEN.    I  85 

2.  What  is  meant  by  the  localization  of  cerebral  functions  ? 

3.  Can  you  cite  examples  from  your  own  observation  or  reading  to 
show  that  there  is  such  localization? 

4.  What  sort  of  facts  would  be  necessary  to  prove  that  the  read- 
ing is  different  from  the  talking  centre  ? 

5.  How  are  we  to  ascertain  when  it  is  wise  to  begin  to  require 
children  to  use  the  accessory  muscles? 

6.  State  in  the  most  general  form  the  criticism  to  which  all  the 
arguments  against  the  current  practice  are  exposed. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

CONCENTRATION   AND   CORRELATION. 

The  Law  of  Interest. —  Although  the  subject  of  the  pre- 
ceding chapters  was  the  what  rather  than  the  how  of  the 
primary  grades,  it  was  sought  to  show  that  in  teaching  the 
various  subjects  they  should  be  related  to  each  other  as 
closely  as  possible.  The  reading,  writing,  language  lessons, 
drawing,  number,  and  hand  work  should  be  based  on  the 
nature  study,  the  stories,  and  the  literature.  So  interwoven 
should  be  the  various  parts  of  a  child's  work  that  the  pupil 
himself  should  scarcely  be  conscious  that  he  is  "studying" 
different  subjects  at  all.  Occupied  all  the  time  with  sub- 
jects that  interest  him,  he  should  be  led  from  one  to  another 
by  transitions  so  gradual  and  at  the  same  time  so  natural 
that  he  will  seem  to  himself  to  be  doing  the  precise  thing 
that  he  wished  to  do.  The  reason  for  this  is  found  in 
what  is  known  as  the  law  of  interest.  An  object  lacking 
interest  becomes  interesting  through  being  associated  with 
an  interesting  object.  "The  two  associated  objects,"  says 
Professor  James,  "  grow,  as  it  were,  together ;  the  interesting 
portion  sheds  its  quality  over  the  whole,  and  things  not  inter- 
esting in  their  own  right  borrow  an  interest  which  becomes 
as  real  and  strong  as  that  of  any  natively  interesting  thing."  ^ 

Concentration  Defined.  —  Now  in  so  far  as  the  work  of  the 
school  forms  organically  connected  parts  of  an  interrelated 
1  James'  Talks  to  Teachers,  p.  49. 
186 


CONCENTRATION   AND   CORRELATION.  187 

whole,  in  so  far  as  every  part  of  that  whole  is  connected  by 
intimate  inner  relations  with  every  other  part,  in  so  far  the 
work  illustrates  the  pedagogic  doctrine  of  concentration. 
Says  Dr.  Charles  McMurry  :  "  By  concentration  is  meant 
such  a  connection  between  the  parts  of  each  study  and  such 
a  spinning  of  relations  and  connecting  links  that  unity  may 
spring  out  of  the  variety  of  knowledge.  .  .  .  Concentra- 
tion is  chiefly  concerned  with  the  relation  of  different 
studies  to  each  other."  And  he  proceeds  to  illustrate  the 
theory  of  concentration  by  an  account  of  the  procedure  of 
Zeller,  who  attempted  to  group  all  the  work  of  eight  school 
grades  around  a  body  of  historical  narrative,  so  that  the 
reading,  language,  geography,  drawing,  music,  arithmetic, 
nature  study,  and  literature  should  spring  out  of  and  de- 
pend upon  it.^ 

The    Principle  upon  Which    Specialization  Depends. — 

No  one  is  so  zealous  for  the  doctrine  of  concentration  as 
to  contend  that  it  should  be  carried  out  in  all  the  grades 
of  education.  All  admit  that  differentiation  must  take 
place,  that  the  student  must  begin  to  devote  his  time  to 
special  subjects,  at  some  point  in  the  university,  college, 
high  or  grammar  school.  Upon  what  principle  is  this 
differentiation  based  ?  If,  according  to  universal  admission, 
concentration  must  some  time  give  place  to  what  we  may 
term  specialization,  there  must  be  a  reason  for  it ;  and  that 
reason  will  be  the  principle  which,  correctly  applied,  will 
determine  the  point  at  which  concentration  should  cease 
and  specialization  should  begin.  To  put  it  differently, 
every  one  admits  that   specialization   must   begin  some- 

1  See  also  De  Garmo's  "  Herbart  and  the  Herbartians "  for  a  detailed 
illustration  of  the  theory  of  concentration. 


l88     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

where.  What  we  have  to  do  then,  is  first,  to  ascertain  the 
reason  for  it, —  the  principle  in  consequence  of  which  con- 
centration must  give  way  to  speciaHzation  ;  and,  secondly, 
to  determine  at  what  point  in  the  education  of  a  child  this 
principle  becomes  applicable. 

Interest  in  the  Individual  and  Scientific  Interest. — 
From  the  point  of  view  of  the  educationists  who  contend 
that  interest  is  the  only  motive  that  ought  to  be  appealed 
to,  the  determination  of  this  principle  is  easy.  As  long 
as  the  connection  between  facts  belonging  to  different 
subjects  is  more  interesting  than  the  relation  between  the 
facts  of  a  single  subject,  so  long  the  method  of  concen- 
tration  should  be  followed.  When,  however,  the  relations 
between  the  facts  of  a  given  science  become  more  interest- 
ing, specialization  should  begin.  We  may  draw  a  distinc- 
tion between  an  interest  in  plants  and  an  interest  in 
botany,  between  an  interest  in  animals  and  an  interest 
in  zoology,  between  an  interest  in  men  and  an  interest  in 
psychology.  Science  cares  nothing  for  the  individual  as 
such.  So  far  and  only  so  far  as  the  individual  is  a  type 
of  a  class,  an  illustration  of  the  universal,  is  it  an  object 
of  interest  to  science.  The  particular  flower  which  grew 
from  a  seed  and  which  you  yourself  have  planted,  which 
you  have  nursed  and  cared  for  from  the  beginning,  botany 
cares  nothing  for.  You  may  be  a  botanist,  but  as  such 
you  are  interested  only  in  the  universal  aspects  and  rela- 
tions of  plants.  The  same  is  true,  of  course,  of  all  the 
sciences.  Your  dog  that  you  have  taught  to  know  and 
love  you,  that  barks  with  delight  when  you  come,  and 
looks  at  you  so  longingly  when  you  go,  is  an  object  of  in- 
terest to  you,  but  not  to  the  zoologist.     Zoology  cares  for 


CONCENTRATION  AND   CORRELATION.  189 

him  only  as  a  type,  queries  whether  creatures  of  his  class 
can  reason,  studies  the  resemblances  and  differences  be- 
tween the  class  to  which  he  belongs  and  other  closely  re- 
lated classes.  The  same  is  true  of  psychology.  Contrast 
the  point  of  view  of  psychology  with  that  of  the  mother 
toward  her  only  child.  To  the  mother  he  is  the  centre  of 
life  and  affection  for  whom  she  has  lived  and  suffered,  for 
whose  sake  she  would  willingly  die.  To  the  psychologist 
he  is  merely  a  specimen  of  the  human  race;  all  that 
makes  him  precious  in  his  mother's  eyes  the  psychologist 
cares  nothing  about.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  it 
is  individual  men  and  women  —  father,  mother,  uncle, 
aunt ;  individual  animals  —  Ponto,  Marcus,  Sport ;  indi- 
vidual flowers  —  violet,  castor-bean,  and  rose  ;  individual 
heavenly  bodies  —  sun,  moon,  that  interest  the  child. 
And  I  repeat,  if  his  interest  is  to  be  the  criterion,  it  is 
only  when  the  child's  interest  in  the  type  or  class  becomes 
livelier  than  his  interest  in  the  individual  that  the  scientific 
interest  should  receive  attention.  But  to  determine  our 
methods  in  accordance  with  the  scientific  interest  is  to 
break  up  the  unity  of  nature  into  groups  of  facts  —  is  to 
have  our  methods  determined  by  the  differences  between 
things  instead  of  their  likenesses,  is  to  forsake  the  principle 
of  concentration  for  the  principle  of  differentiation. 

Interest  not  a  Criterion  of  Educational  Method. —  From  a 
new  point  of  view  the  doubt  arises  whether  it  is  wise  to 
make  the  interests  of  children  the  criterion  by  which  we 
are  to  judge  of  the  soundness  of  our  educational  methods. 
If  we  must  not  wait  until  the  scientific  interest  is  more 
intense  than  the  interest  in  individuals  before  abandoning 
the  principle  of  concentration,  it  is  hardly  open  to  doubt 


190    A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

that  at  some  point  in  the  history  of  the  child  the  greater 
interest  must  give  way  to  the  lesser.  Bold  would  be  he 
who  should  contend  that  the  average  man,  even  the  aver- 
age educated  man,  to  say  nothing  of  the  average  child, 
cares  more  for  the  individual  as  the  type  of  a  class  than 
he  does  for  the  individual  for  its  own  sake.  Is  it,  in  fact, 
desirable  that  he  should  do  so  ?  It  is  individuals  as  such, 
not  as  types,  that  appeal  to  our  affections,  to  our  sense  of 
beauty.  The  supreme  sway  of  the  scientific  interest  is 
the  rule  of  an  interest  that  leaves  no  room  for  love  or  hate 
or  the  sense  of  duty.  It  is  the  rule  of  an  interest  that  dis- 
sects and  analyzes  and  cares  for  objects  only  as  materials 
for  dissection  and  analysis ;  of  an  interest  that  insists  on 
the  universal  domination  of  law — that  cannot  abide  the 
presence  of  a  free  man,  an  independent,  unique  source  of 
energy,  because  such  a  man  is  not  to  be  analyzed  into  the 
factors  which  infallibly  explain  his  actions.  It  is  the  rule 
of  an  interest  that  insists  on  regarding  the  self-sacrifice  of 
the  mother,  the  devotion  of  the  father,  as  the  automatic 
result  of  brain  activity  with  which  the  conscious  being  has 
no  more  to  do  than  he  has  with  the  rotation  of  the 
earth.  Now  if  this  interest  is  not  to  predominate  in  the 
average  educated  man,  is  there  not  something  wrong  in 
the  doctrine  that  the  one  thing  that  must  determine  the 
methods  and  subjects  of  study  of  the  school  is  interest  ? 
If  even  in  the  high  school  and  the  college  students  are 
more  interested  in  biography  than  they  are  in  history,  how 
can  the  theory  of  interest  justify  the  study  of  history  ? 

Cultivation  of  Intellect :  Its  Place  in  Education.  —  This 
point  is  again  raised  because  the  conditions  just  presented 
make  it  evident  that  we  cannot  find  in  the  child's  interest 


CONCENTRATION  AND   CORRELATION.  191 

the  principle  whose  application  is  to  determine  when 
the  method  of  concentration  must  cease  to  be  controlling. 
To  discover  this  principle  we  must  decide  an  important 
question  :  the  place  the  cultivation  of  the  intellect  occupies 
in  the  education  of  a  human  being.  In  considering  this 
question  we  must  not  suppose  that  we  are  obliged  to 
choose  between  the  training  of  the  intellect  and  the  train- 
ing of  the  emotions.  This  alternative  is  not  rejected  on 
the  ground  that  you  cannot  make  an  appeal  to  the  intellect 
except  through  the  emotions.  For  the  only  form  of  emo- 
tion to  which  you  must  appeal  in  order  to  reach  the  intel- 
lect is  the  cold  love  of  truth,  the  desire  to  know  what  is — 
a  desire  that  is  entirely  consistent  with  the  most  absolute 
and  profound  indifference  to  the  fate  of  every  human 
being.  No,  the  alternative  is  rejected  because  the  com- 
plexity of  our  nature  makes  it  impossible  for  us  to  deal 
wisely  with  one  side  of  it  without  dealing  wisely  with  the 
whole  of  it.  Deal  with  the  intellect  alone,  ignoring  every 
feeling  except  that  desire  for  knowledge  which  enables  you 
to  stimulate  intellectual  activity,  and  so  far  as  your  meth- 
ods succeed  you  have  a  monstrosity,  a  human  Mephistoph- 
eles,  a  being  who  is  perfectly  capable  of  trying  the  effect 
of  a  new  poison  upon  his  mother,  not  from  a  desire  to  kill 
her,  but  in  order  to  gratify  his  scientific  interest.  Deal 
with  the  emotions  alone,  or  with  the  intellect  only  so  far 
as  it  enables  you  to  reach  the  emotions,  and  you  will  have 
a  drivelling,  ineffective,  superstitious  sentimentalist  whose^ 
love  brings  nothing  but  misery  to  the  objects  of  his  affec- 
tion, because  his  conduct  is  not  guided  by  the  insight  of 
a  trained  intellect.  The  patriotism  of  a  citizen  however 
pure  and  unselfish,  the  regard  of  a  friend  no  matter  how 
self-sacrificing,  is  no  guarantee  of  wise  action.     As  Intel- 


192     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

lect  without  love  leads  to  the  actions  of  a  devil,  so  love 
without  intellect  leads  to  the  actions  of  a  fool.  Mani- 
festly, therefore,  the  school  must  see  to  the  training  of 
both.  It  is  of  course  evident  that  exercises  which  train 
the  observation  and  memory  of  pupils,  in  a  sense  train  the 
intellect.  But  it  is  equally  evident  that  the  sole  intellec- 
tual value  of  observation  and  memory  depends  upon  their 
relation  to  higher  intellectual  powers.  Merely  to  observe 
and  then  to  remember  serves  no  purpose  but  to  retain  a 
brute  fact  in  the  mind.  Now  in  order  that  this  fact  may 
have  any  intellectual  value,  thought  must  take  it  up,  must 
perceive  its  relations  to  prior  and  succeeding  facts,  must 
view  it  as  an  illustration  of  a  general  law.  To  train  the 
intellect,  therefore,  in  the  specific  sense  in  which  such 
training  has  ultimate  educational  value  is  to  train  the  power 
to  think. 

Training  to  Think.  —  Such  training  is  acquired  in  two 
ways :  by  thinking  which  is  for  the  pupil  original,  or  by 
rethinking  the  thoughts  of  some  one  else  as  set  forth  in  a 
book  or  conversation  or  lecture.  Now  original  thinking 
in  the  case  of  school  children  must  be  disconnected  and 
unsystematic.  The  thinker  takes  one  step,  thinks  back,  it 
may  be,  to  the  cause  of  a  fact,  or  forward  to  its  effect. 
Systematic,  connected  thinking,  the  thinking  that  enables 
us  to  see  a  fact  in  a  vast  network  of  connected  relations, 
is  the  thinking  that  constitutes  the  special  sciences. 

From  every  point  of  view  it  is  evident  that  only  syste- 
matic thinking  has  high  educational  value.  We  hear  a 
good  deal  about  the  importance  of  teaching  the  pupil  to 
think.  Dr.  Schaeffer  has  aptly  remarked  that  you  cannot 
keep  him  from  it.     But  you  can  very  easily  keep  him  from 


CONCENTRATION  AND   CORRELATION.  193 

connected  logical  thinking.  That  is  the  reason  why  re- 
thinking any  branch  of  science,  arithmetic,  physiology, 
botany,  is  so  valuable  —  it  is  going  over  the  process  by 
which  truth  is  obtained,  and  strengthening  the  power  to 
obtain  it  independently. 

Very  much  of  the  thinking  that  bears  upon  practical 
life  ought  to  be  of  the  connected,  systematic  sort.  That 
statesman  can  deal  most  wisely  with  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  United  States  shall  enter  upon  a  colonial  pol- 
icy who  sees  most  clearly  not  only  its  effect  upon  our 
immediate  financial  future,  but  also  its  bearing  upon  our 
entire  national  life  for  an  indefinite  period.  That  father  is 
best  fitted  to  train  his  child  who  is  best  able  to  realize  the 
effect  of  particular  influences  upon  the  whole  future  of  his 
son.  But  even  in  those  cases  where  the  practical  needs  of 
life  require  that  thought  should  take  only  a  single  step,  it 
is  always  important  that  this  step  be  taken  logically,  that 
the  mind  be  able  to  realize  the  difference  between  a  guess 
or  a  surmise  and  a  well-grounded  inference.  This  power 
is  best  acquired  by  rethinking  the  systematic,  connected 
thoughts  which  constitute  a  science,  because  such  thoughts 
are  logical.  When,  therefore,  the  intellect  of  the  pupil 
is  sufficiently  developed  to  enable  him  to  rethink  such 
thoughts,  and  when  his  interest  is  sufficiently  great  to 
enable  him  to  do  so  without  unduly  taxing  the  will,  such 
activity  should  be  required  of  him. 

As  to  when,  in  the  case  of  the  average  pupil,  this  period 
is  reached  nothing  definite  can  as  yet  be  said.  The  prog- 
ress of  education  has  but  recently  reached  that  stage  where 
the  individual  pupil  is  deemed  a  subject  worthy  of  inves- 
tigation. Not  until  generations  of  trained  teachers  have 
observed  the  results  of  intelligent  efforts  to  stimulate  school 


194     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

children  to  rethink  the  simpler  connections  which  constitute 
science  can  anything  definite  on  this  subject  be  said. 

Correlation.  —  Correlation  as  distinguished  from  concen- 
tration means  two  things  :  (i)  such  an  arrangement  of  the 
programme  that  the  work  in  one  subject  may,  so  far  as 
possible,  throw  light  on  the  work  that  the  pupil  is  doing  at 
the  same  time  in  another;  (2)  such  a  method  of  teaching 
as  will  cause  the  pupil  to  see  the  particular  fact  he  is 
studying  in  its  relation  to  all  that  he  knows.  To  under- 
stand the  Missouri  Compromise,  for  example,  is  to  see  that 
fact  not  only  in  its  relations  to  preceding  historical  facts, 
but  also  in  its  relations  to  geographical  facts. 

QUESTIONS  ON   THE  TEXT. 

1.  State  and  illustrate  the  law  of  interest. 

2.  State  and  illustrate  the  difference  between  concentration  and 
specialization. 

3.  What  is  meant  by  the  "  principle  upon  which  specialization 
depends " ? 

4.  What  is  meant  by  scientific  interest? 

5.  Show  that  interest  cannot  be  made  a  criterion  of  educational 
method. 

6.  What  place  has  the  cultivation  of  the  intellect  in  education? 

7.  Show  the  necessity  for  training  both  the  intellect  and  the  emo- 
tions. 

8.  What  is  the  difference  between  unsystematic  and  systematic 
thinking  ? 

9.  Show  that  the  various  sciences  are  the  results  of  systematic 
thinking. 

ID.  When  should  the  pupil  be  required  to  rethink  some  of  the  sys- 
tematic thoughts  of  science  ? 
II.  Define  correlation. 

SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

:.  Do  you  see  clearly  why  education  requires  the  more  intense 
interest  to  give  way  to  the  less  ? 


CONCENTRATION   AND   CORRELATION.  I  95 

2.  On  what  law  of  association  is  concentration  based,  and  on  what 
is  specialization  ? 

3.  Illustrate  the  last  part  of  your  answer  by  the  science  of  arith- 
metic. 

4.  Are  you  clear  as  to  what  the  principle  of  specialization  is  ? 

5.  Are  you  equally  certain  as  to  its  application,  and  if  not,  why 
not? 


CHAPTER   XVIIL 

THE  FETICH  OF  GENERAL  METHOD. 

General  Method  Explained.  —  There  is  no  part  of  the 
Herbartian  pedagogy  to  which  more  universal  assent  is 
given  than  to  its  doctrine  of  general  method.  Ratich's  idea 
of  a  uniform  method  to  be  observed  in  the  teaching  of  all 
subjects  seems  to  professed  Herbartians  not  merely,  but  to 
large  numbers  of  educationists  who  call  no  man  master,  to 
have  been  embodied  in  this  theory.  What  is  the  theory  ? 
That,  whatever  the  subject  taught,  the  first  stage  consists 
in  preparing  the  mind  to  receive  what  is  to  be  presented  to 
it ;  the  second,  in  presenting  the  matter  upon  which  the 
mind  is  to  act ;  the  third,  in  generalizing  from  the  presen- 
tation ;  the  fourth,  in  applying  the  generalization  to  all  the 
cognate  facts  known  to  the  student.  Preparation,  presen- 
tation, generalization,  and  application,  in  a  word,  are  suc- 
cessive steps  or  stages  essential  in  the  method  of  teaching 
all  subjects  without  exception.  As  the  journey  of  a  trav- 
eller through  an  undulating  country  is  a  succession  of  as- 
cents and  descents  throughout  the  region  traversed,  so  the 
work  of  an  intelligent  teacher  consists  of  a  series  of  ascents 
from  particulars  to  generals,  and  of  descents  from  generals 
to  particulars.  And  as  the  number  of  ascents  a  traveller 
must  make  in  a  given  journey  is  determined  by  the  num- 
ber of  hills  he  is  obliged  to  climb,  so  the  number  of  ascents 
which  the  teacher  should  lead  his  pupils  to  make  is  deter- 
mined by  the  number  of  generals  or  universals  —  concepts 

19^ 


THE  FETICH  OF  GENERAL  METHOD, 


197 


or  generalizations  —  involved  in  the  particular  facts  of 
the  lesson,  each  group  of  particular  facts  involving  a  uni- 
versal being  called  a  method-whole.^  For  example,  if  a 
lesson  in  grammar  is  intended  to  teach  not  only  what  a 
verb  is,  but  the  distinction  between  active  and  passive 
verbs,  it  contains  three  method-wholes,  the  first  compris- 
ing that  part  of  it  which  brings  out  the  nature  of  the 
verb  ;  the  second  and  third,  those  parts  that  make  clear 
the  difference  between  active  and  passive  verbs. 

What  Determines  the  Validity  of  Method  ?  —  This  is  the 
doctrine.  Is  it  true  ?  It  will  be  generally  conceded  that 
there  can  be  such  a  thing  as  General  Method,  a  method 
applicable  to  the  teaching  of  all  subjects  to  the  extent 
only  that  the  mind  grasps  all  the  subjects  with  which  it 
deals  in  the  same  way.  Methods  derive  their  validity 
wholly  from  the  mind.  If  a  method  is  good,  it  is  because 
it  conforms  to  the  laws  of  the  mind ;  if  it  is  bad,  it  is  be- 
cause it  fails  to  conform  to  these  laws,  or  conforms  to 
them  very  imperfectly.  If,  then,  the  same  method  should 
be  followed  in  the  teaching  of  arithmetic,  geography, 
grammar,  history,  language,  literature,  etc.,  it  is  because 
the  mind  moves  in  the  same  way  throughout  in  dealing 
with  each  of  these  subjects.  The  whole  matter  hinges 
upon  a  question  of  fact  —  the  nature  of  the  action  of  the 
mind  when  it  is  engaged  in  studying  the  various  school 
subjects. 

1  Compare  with  De  Garmo's  Essentials  of  Method,  McMurry*s  General 
Method,  Rein's  Pedagogics,  Lange's  Apperception.  The  exposition  of  the 
Herbartian  doctrine  set  forth  in  the  text  is  based  upon  the  work  first 
named,  which  differs  only  in  unimportant  details  from  similar  contributions 
by  other  members  of  the  school, 


198     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

Action  of  the  Mind  (i)  in  Connection  with  Grammar.  — 
What,  then,  is  the  mind  of  the  student  doing  when  he  is 
analyzing  a  sentence  in  grammar  ?  Classifying  the  parts 
of  the  sentence  according  to  the  functions  they  perform,  or, 
using  more  technical  language,  applying  grammatical  con- 
cepts to  the  words  of  the  sentence.  When  the  student 
says  that  such  and  such  a  word  or  phrase  is  an  adverbial 
modifier,  he  is  trying  to  put  it  in  its  proper  class,  and  he 
is  able  to  do  this  only  because  he  already  has  the  idea  or 
concept  of  the  class  of  adverbial  modifiers.  Surveying, 
then,  all  of  the  teaching  processes  that  terminate  in  the 
teaching  of  grammatical  analysis,  we  certainly  find  the 
four  formal  steps  of  the  Herbartians.  The  pupil  must 
be  taught  —  to  omit  the  first  step  —  that  this,  that,  or  the 
other  word  or  phrase  is  an  adverbial  modifier  —  presenta- 
tion ;  then  helped  to  see  what  it  is  that  makes  the  various 
words  adverbial  modifiers — generalization  ;  then  enabled  to 
exercise  the  power  to  use  his  generalization  —  application.* 
But  in  the  lesson  in  analysis  only  one  of  these  steps,  the 
last,  is  taken  if  the  pupil  has  done  his  preceding  work 
well.  The  sentence  he  is  studying  does  not  correspond  to 
the  presentation  at  all:  it  is  material  which  he  is  using 
to  show  his  mastery  of  the  generalizations  he  is  supposed  to 
have  made  already.  It  represents  not  the  foot  of  the  hill 
up  which  he  is  to  climb,  but  the  bottom  of  the  hill  he  is 
supposed  to  be  descending. 

Omitting  the  stage  of  preparation,  we  may  state  all  the 
movements  of  the  mind  which  the  teaching  processes  that 

1  For  the  sake  of  brevity  the  first  step  will  not  be  illustrated  in  these 
discussions.  It  consists  essentially  in  asking  the  pupil  such  questions  and 
imparting  to  him  such  information  as  will  best  prepare  him  to  appreciate 
and  understand  what  you  wish  to  teach  him.     A  student  would  be  pre- 


THE  FETICH  OF  GENERAL  METHOD. 


199 


terminate  in  grammatical  analysis  are  intended  to  occasion, 
in  the  form  of  two  syllogisms : 

1.  This,  that,  and  the  other  word  are  adverbial  modifiers  —  accepted  on 
the  authority  of  book  or  teacher; 

The  only  common  characteristics  of  these  words  are  that  they  qualify 
the  meaning  of  certain  other  words ; 

Therefore  an  adverbial  modifier  is  one  that  quaUfies  the  meaning  of 
certain  words. 

2.  Whatever  qualifies  the  meaning  of  a  verb  is  an  adverbial  modifier ; 
Swiftly^  in  the  sentence,  "  The  man  runs  swiftly,"  qualifies  the  verb  runs ; 
Therefore  swiftly  is  an  adverbial  modifier. 

(2)  In  Connection  with  History.  —  The  movements  of 
the  mind  of  the  pupil  who  is  studying  history  are  quite 
different.  In  grammar  —  to  confine  our  attention  to  a 
single  phase  of  the  subject  —  he  is  engaged  in  forming 
concepts  of  classes  and  applying  concepts  already  formed. 
In  history  he  is  seeking  to  know,-  not  to  what  class  such 
or  such  an  event  belongs,  but  its  cause.  Why  was  the 
Federal  Constitution  adopted  ?  Why  did  the  South  oppose 
Hamilton's  financial  policy  }  Why  did  Adams  send  the 
mission  to  France  in  1 800 }  What  was  the  effect  of  the 
embargo.?  The  answer  to  all  these  questions  consists  in  an 
application  of  some  truth  about  human  nature.  The  Con- 
stitution was  adopted  by  the  conventions  of  the  various 
States  because  the  delegates  thought  their  interests  would 
be  promoted  by  a  stronger  government.  The  Southern 
States  opposed  Hamilton's  financial  policy  because  they 
thought  it  subversive  of  the  interests  of  the  agricultural 
States.     Adams  sent  the  mission  to  France  because  he 

pared  to  understand  a  lesson  on  adverbs  by  questions  which  should  recall 
to  his  attention  the  function  of  adjectives,  and  which  should  make  it  clear 
that  there  are  other  classes  of  words  besides  nouns  which  require  to  have 
their  meaning  modified  in  the  same  way. 


aoO  A    BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

thought  an  honorable  peace  even  with  the  dishonorable 
government  of  France  preferable  to  war.  The  embargo 
prostrated  the  commerce  of  New  England  and  thus  occa- 
sioned the  violent  opposition  of  that  section.  We  see, 
then,  that  explanation  in  history  consists  in  referring  an 
event  to  the  motives  of  the  men  who  were  responsible  for 
it.  It  presupposes  that  the  pupil  already  knows  the  mo- 
tives that  influence  men,  and  points  out  the  motive  in  the 
case  under  investigation.  Surveying  all  the  mental  activi- 
ties that  terminate  in  historical  explanation,  we  discern  a 
process  bearing  some  resemblance  to  the  three  formal 
steps  of  the  Herbartians.  By  observing  myself  in  this, 
that,  or  the  other  instance,  I  learn  that  I  am  influenced  by 
such  or  such  motives  —  presentation ;  I  infer  that  all  men 
resemble  me  in  this  particular  —  generalization;  and  sup- 
posing that  such  or  such  an  historical  event  was  due  to 
such  or  such  a  motive,  I  can  tell  why  it  was  brought  about 
—  application.  To  illustrate  :  by  observing  myself,  I  learn 
that  many  of  my  actions  are  due  to  self-interest  —  presen- 
tation ;  I  infer  that  other  men  act  from  the  same  motive  — 
generalization;  and  I  assume  that  I  understand  New 
England's  opposition  to  the  embargo  by  referring  it  to  the 
same  cause.  But  we  see  that  here  also  the  facts  in  the 
history  lesson  usually  form  no  part  of  the  presentation ; 
that  they  are  matters  to  be  explained  by  principles  of 
human  nature  with  which  the  pupil  is  supposed  to  be 
already  acquainted.  When  this  is  not  the  case,  when  the 
historical  fact  is  to  be  explained  by  being  referred  to  some 
^  characteristic  of  human  nature  of  which  the  pupil  is  igno- 
rant, the  statement  of  the  fact  forms  a  small  and  a  very 
unimportant  part  of  the  presentation.  No  one,  for  exam- 
ple, can  understand  the  Chinese  system  of  education  and 


THE   FETICH    OF   GENERAL  METHOD.  20I 

Chinese  life  in  general  without  understanding  the  extent 
to  which  that  people  is  governed  by  tradition.  The  par- 
ticular fact,  in  a  word,  must  be  made  to  disclose  its  rela- 
tionship to  a  huge  family  of  facts,  and  this  can  of  course 
be  done  only  by  making  these  known  to  the  student  — 
in  which  consists  the  real  presentation  in  the  case.  And 
if  tradition  in  Chinese  life  is  to  be  really  understood,  if  the 
Chinaman  is  not  to  be  made  to  appear  to  have  a  radically 
different  nature  from  ours,  if  we  are  to  realize  our  kinship 
and  fellowship  with  him  in  fundamental  matters,  we  must 
be  helped  to  see  the  part  tradition  plays  in  our  own  lives. 
And  the  statement  of  the  facts  which  enable  us  to  see  that 
we,  like  the  Chinaman,  have  our  opinions  determined  for 
us,  and  our  actions  in  many  cases  decided  for  us,  by  plastic 
imitation,  not  by  reasoning,  will  be  the  true  presentation. 

Moreover,  the  movements  of  the  mind  which  in  the  study 
of  history  terminate  in  explanations  are  very  different  from 
those  which  in  the  study  of  grammar  terminate  in  analysis. 
Let  us  state  the  former  in  syllogisms,  the  latter  having 
already  been  so  given  (see  page  199). 

1.  By  observing  myself  and  other  people,  I  notice  that  some  people  are 
influenced  by  this,  that,  or  the  other  motive ; 

Men  in  general  resemble  each  other  in  fundamental  matters ; 
Therefore  men  in  general  are  influenced  by  the  same  motives  that  influ- 
ence me  and  the  people  whom  I  have  observed. 

2.  Suppositions  which  are  in  harmony  with  all  that  I  know  and  which 
explain  men's  conduct  are  likely  to  be  true ; 

The  supposition  that  members  of  Congress  are  often  influenced  by  the 
desire  to  be  re-elected  is  in  harmony  with  all  that  I  know,  and  also  explains 
their  conduct ; 

Therefore  it  is  likely  to  be  true. 

Now  a  comparison  of  these  syllogisms  with  those  which 
express  the  movements  of  the  mind  that  terminate  in  gram- 


Q02  A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

matical  analysis  will  make  it  evident  that  the  mental  activ- 
ities of  the  student  in  dealing  with  the  two  subjects  are 
very  different.  We  see  by  comparing  No.  i  of  the  syllo- 
gisms on  page  167  with  No.  i  of  those  just  given  that  they 
lead  to  conclusions  of  widely  different  degrees  of  certainty. 
If  the  student  has  been  careful  enough  in  comparing  the 
characteristics  of  the  various  words  known  as  adverbial  mod- 
ifiers, he  can  say  with  absolute  certainty  that  an  adverbial 
modifier  is  a  word  having  such  and  such  characteristics. 
But  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  no  amount  of  careful- 
ness in  self-observation  and  in  observation  of  others  will 
enable  him  to  say  that  he,  and  the  men  he  has  observed, 
are  types  of  men  in  general,  and  for  that  reason  more  or 
less  uncertainty  always  attaches  to  historical  explanations. 
In  illustration  of  this  we  may  cite  the  universally  conceded 
fact  that  Hume  utterly  failed  to  explain  those  periods  of 
English  history  when  enthusiasm  was  a  potent  and  de- 
cisive force.  Being  of  a  bold,  analytical  temper,  his  his- 
torical explanations  proceeded  on  the  assumption  that  he 
was  a  type  of  men  in  general,  an  assumption  manifestly 
false.  If  now  we  examine  closely  the  two  syllogisms  to 
see  how  it  is  that  they  terminate  in  conclusions  of  such 
different  degrees  of  certainty,  we  find  that  the  one  ends  in 
a  concept  founded  upon  materials  directly  before  the  mind, 
and  the  other  in  a  wide  induction  resting  on  a  narrow  basis. 
A  comparison  of  the  No.  2  syllogisms  results  similarly. 
We  see  that  the  conclusion  of  the  grammatical  syllogism 
may  be  and  generally  is  absolutely  certain,  while  that  of 
the  historical  syllogism  is  often  very  uncertain.  It  is  well 
known,  for  example,  that  while  historians  as  a  rule  agree  as 
to  their  facts,  they  differ  very  widely  in  their  interpretation 
of  them.     As  an  illustration,  take  the  contradictory  esti- 


THE   FETICH   OF  GENERAL  METHOD. 


103 


mates  of  Jefferson,  one  class  of  writers  regarding  him  as  a 
self-seeking  demagogue,  the  other  as  a  far-sighted  states- 
man and  patriot.  Here  again  the  reason  is  not  far  to  seek. 
By  exercising  sufficient  care  the  student  may  be  certain 
of  the  truth  of  the  major  and  minor  premises  of  his 
grammatical  syllogism.  The  data  are  all  before  him.  But 
the  validity  of  the  historical  syllogism  depends  wholly 
upon  the  truth  of  the  assumption  that  the  assigned  mo- 
tive was  the  true  one  —  an  assumption  which  is  often  at 
variance  with  fact,  an  assumption  the  possible  error  of 
which  there  is  no  guarding  against.  The  student  of  his- 
tory, in  a  word,  is  confronted  with  this  alternative :  he 
must  either  refrain  from  making  any  explanations  at  all,  in 
which  case  there  is  nothing  corresponding  to  the  Her- 
bartian  generalization,  or,  if  he  explains,  his  explanation 
is  nearly  always  exposed  to  doubt.  But  what  we  are 
especially  concerned  to  note  is  that  the  historical  syllo- 
gism is  an  illustration  of  that  type  of  inductive  reasoning 
which  consists  in  finding  hypotheses  to  explain  facts. 
The  supposition  that  the  man  or  the  group  of  men  acted 
from  such  and  such  motives  will  explain  the  facts ;  there- 
fore we  assume  that  they  really  were  influenced  by  those 
motives,  although  it  is  possible  that  they  were  actuated  by 
motives  of  an  entirely  different  sort.  The  grammatical 
syllogism,  on  the  other  hand,  is  an  illustration  of  deductive 
reasoning  pure  and  simple. 

(3)  In  Connection  with  Arithmetic. —  In  arithmetical 
reasoning  the  mental  processes  differ  widely  from  those 
just  discussed.  If  one  man  can  perform  as  much  labor 
as  two  boys,  and  if  it  takes  three  men  five  days  to  do 
a  piece  of  work,  how  long  will  it  take  one  boy  ?      The 


204    A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

answer  to  this  question  is  reached  in  two  steps,  each  of 
which  consists  in  the  appUcation  of  self-evident  truths.  If 
one  man  can  do  as  much  work  as  two  boys,  it  is  patent  that 
three  men  can  do  as  much  as  six  boys.  And  if  six  boys 
require  five  days  to  accompUsh  a  task,  it  follows  that  it 
would  take  one  boy  thirty  days. 

Expressing  these  processes  in  syllogisms  we  have : 

1.  Three  times  two  are  six; 

One  man  can  do  as  much  as  two  boys ; 
Hence  three  men  can  do  as  much  as  six  boys. 

2.  Six  times  five  are  thirty ; 

Six  boys  can  do  the  work  in  five  days; 
Hence  it  \s'ill  take  one  boy  thirty  days. 

Here  No.  i  does  not  terminate  in  a  conception  as  in  the 
corresponding  grammatical  syllogism,  nor  in  an  induction 
as  in  the  corresponding  historical  syllogism,  but  in  the 
application  of  a  self-evident  truth.  And  No.  2  is  of  the 
same  sort.  If  now  we  make  a  survey  of  all  the  mental 
processes  which  terminate  in  the  solution  of  this  problem, 
we  shall  find  nothing  whatever  corresponding  to  the  Her- 
bartian  presentation  and  generalization  unless  we  give 
these  terms  a  meaning  entirely  different  from  that  which 
they  must  bear  in  grammar  or  history.  How  does  a  boy 
learn  that  three  times  two  are  six  ?  Not  surely  by  trying 
with  oranges,  pears,  apples,  marbles,  pens,  etc.,  and,  finding 
it  true  as  to  these,  inferring  it  to  be  true  in  all  cases.  If 
that  were  so,  there  would  be  no  accounting  for  his  absolute 
certainty  that  three  times  two  are  everywhere  and  always 
six. 

No  one  so  far  as  I  know  has  ever  seen  a  white  crow. 
Nevertheless,  if  a  man  in  whose  veracity  I  have  entire  con- 


THE  FETICH  OF  GENERAL  METHOD.      205 

fidence  were  to  tell  me  that  he  had  seen  one,  I  should  be- 
lieve him.  But  all  the  men  in  the  world  could  not  convince 
me  that  three  times  two  are  seven.  Whoever  asserts  the 
proposition  with  an  air  of  conviction  succeeds  only  in 
demonstrating  to  me  that  he  is  a  fool.  Why  is  it  that  I 
could  so  easily  be  made  to  believe  in  the  existence  of  white 
crows  when  no  amount  of  evidence  could  convince  me  that 
three  times  two  make  seven  ?  It  is  because  the  proposition, 
All  crows  are  black,  is  an  induction  based  on  particular  ob- 
servations, a  generalization  from  particular  facts,  while  the 
proposition,  Three  times  two  make  six,  is  the  expression  of 
intuitive  insight.  The  particular  groups  of  threes  and  twos 
in  connection  with  which  I  first  apprehended  this  truth  were 
the  occasion,  not  the  sotirce,  of  my  belief  in  it.  To  hold 
that  the  same  relation  exists  between  those  groups  of  threes 
and  twos  and  the  truth  which  I  cognized  in  connection  with 
them,  as  obtains  between  my  observation  of  individual  cases 
and  the  opinion  which  I  base  upon  it,  is  utterly  to  misrepre- 
sent the  operations  of  the  mind.  And  precisely  this  is  done 
when  the  observation  of  groups  of  threes  and  twos  and  the 
observation  of  individual  cases  are  both  called  presentation, 
and  the  insight  occasioned  by  the  former  and  the  inference 
based  upon  the  latter  are  both  called  generalizations. 
Better  a  thousand  times  to  leave  the  teacher  to  the  guidance 
of  his  own  native  common-sense  than  have  him  try  to 
make  himself  believe  that  there  is  no  essential  difference 
between  his  intuitions  in  arithmetic  and  the  generalizations 
of  induction. 

If  this  reasoning  is  sound,  it  is  evident  that  the'  first  two 
of  the  Herbartian  steps  disappear  in  the  teaching  of  arith- 
metic, and  that  arithmetical  study  consists  entirely  in  the 
application  of  axioms  to  particular  cases  —  problems ;  the 


2o6  A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

latter,  so  far  from  furnishing  the  material  which  is  to  end 
in  a  generalization,  being  nothing  but  individual  instances 
presenting  questions  that  are  to  be  determined  by  general 
principles  already  known.  How  true  this  is  will  be  evident 
when  we  reflect  upon  the  steps  taken  by  the  teacher  to  make 
a  pupil  see  the  incorrectness  of  an  arithmetical  solution. 
He  does  not  help  him  to  make  an  induction  that  he  has 
not  made  before,  or  to  see  more  clearly  the  significance  and 
scope  of  one  that  he  has  already  made.  No ;  his  entire 
attention  is  concentrated  on  making  the  pupil  see  that  he 
has  applied  an  arithmetical  truth  not  appropriate  to  the 
particular  case. 

(4)  In  Connection  with  Literature If  now  we  turn  to 

the  study  of  literature  we  find  that  still  other  mental  pro- 
cesses are  involved.     Take  the  first  stanza  of  Gray's  Elegy : 

**  The  curfew  tolls  the  knell  of  parting  day; 
The  lowing  herd  winds  slowly  o'er  the  lea; 
The  ploughman  homeward  plods  his  weary  way, 
And  leaves  the  world  to  darkness  and  to  me." 

Is  the  student  to  treat  this  as  mere  matter  for  the  under- 
standing, to  be  treasured  up  in  memory  ?  Is  he  to  note 
the  fact  that  a  little  after  sunset  the  curfew  tolled,  and  the 
lowing  kine  came  slowly  over  the  meadow,  and  the  tired 
ploughman  went  home  ?  Of  course  not.  Taken  apart 
from  the  rest  of  the  poem,  its  whole  value  consists  in  the 
effect  it  produces  on  the  emotional  nature,  and  the  condi- 
tion of  this  effect  is  its  realization  by  the  imagination. 
The  pupil  must  see  in  his  mind's  eye  the  gathering  dark- 
ness, the  herd  as  it  winds  over  the  meadow,  and  the  weary 
ploughman  wending  his  way  homeward,  and  hear  in  imagi- 
nation the  tolling  of   the  curfew  and  the  lowing  of  the 


THE  FETICH  OF  GENERAL  METHOD.      aoy 

cattle.  To  what  end  ?  In  order  that  he  may  appreciate 
the  beauty  of  the  picture.  If  he  faithfully  reproduces  in 
his  imagination  the  thought  of  the  poet,  and  if  he  feels 
that  it  was  beautiful,  the  stanza  has  produced  its  proper 
effect  upon  his  mind. 

Now  of  course  there  were  two  steps  involved  :  the  pro- 
cess of  imagination  and  the  perception  of  beauty.  But  to 
undertake  to  express  these  in  the  form  of  a  syllogism 
would  be  absurd.  A  syllogism  is  a  complete  statement  of 
an  act  of  reasoning,  and  there  is  no  reasoning  involved 
either  in  the  exercise  of  the  imagination  or  in  the  percep- 
tion of  beauty.  The  science  of  aesthetics  may  perhaps  be 
able  to  tell  us  why  Gray's  Elegy  is  beautiful.  But  we  do 
not  find  the  poem  beautiful  because  that  science  has  for- 
mulated such  and  such  laws ;  on  the  contrary,  the  science 
is  what  it  is  because  we  find  the  poem  beautiful.  The 
normal  mind,  in  other  words,  dictates  to  the  science  of 
aesthetics,  instead  of  being  subject  to  it. 

Summary  of  Conclusions  Relating  to  the  Action  of  the 
Mind  in  Connection  with  Grammar,  History,  Arithmetic, 
and  Literature.  —  Summing  up  our  conclusions,  we  find 
that  the  first  step  in  grammatical  analysis  is  conception  ;  in 
historical  explanation,  an  induction ;  in  arithmetic,  the  in- 
tuitive perception  of  an  axiom ;  in  literature,  an  act  of  the 
imagination.  As  the  second  step  in  grammatical  analysis, 
we  have  deductive  reasoning ;  in  historical  explanation,  a 
particular  sort  of  inductive  reasoning ;  in  arithmetic,  de- 
ductive reasoning ;  in  literature,  a  certain  response  of  the 
emotional  nature.  We  perceive  also  that  in  grammatical 
analysis  this  second  step  is  an  application  of  a  principle 
learned  in  the  study  of  grammar  ;  in  historical  explanation, 


ao8     A  BkOADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

of  a  principle  not  derived  from  the  study  of  history,  but 
determined  by  common  observation  ;  in  arithmetic,  of  a 
principle  acquired  not  through  the  process  of  induction, 
but  through  the  mind's  immediate  perception  ;  and  in  liter- 
ature, that  it  is  not  the  application  of  any  principle  whatever. 

Possible  Defence  of  the  Herbartian  Theory. — One  might 
attempt  to  defend  the  procedure  of  the  Herbartians  by 
saying  that  there  is  a  point  of  view  from  which  all  differ- 
ences disappear.  When  the  Shah  of  Persia  declined  to 
witness  the  great  EngUsh  races  on  the  ground  that  he 
already  knew  the  result  —  that  one  or  the  other  of  the 
horses  would  win  —  he  was  abstracting  from  the  difference 
between  the  individual  horses,  from  all  that  made  them  in- 
teresting to  their  owners  and  the  spectators,  and  regarding 
them  simply  as  horses.  Since  as  horses  they  were  all  the 
same,  what  mattered  wiiich  won  ?  So,  it  might  be  said, 
there  is  always  something  —  a  fact  of  history,  a  poem, 
a  problem  in  arithmetic,  etc.  —  that  stimulates  the  mind 
to  action,  and  some  activity — inductive  reasoning,  exercise 
of  the  imagination,  etc.  —  to  which  the  mind  is  stimulated. 
Why  not,  for  the  sake  of  simplicity,  call  the  first  presenta- 
tion and  the  second  generalization  ?  To  this  the  first  re- 
ply is  that  a  method  is  formulated  for  the  sake  of  guidance. 
For  example,  if  one  wishes  to  buy  or  sell  or  drive  a  horse, 
it  is  not  the  qualities  the  animal  has  in  common  with 
horses  in  general  that  one  needs  to  be  informed  about,  but 
its  individual  peculiarities.  In  like  manner,  if  a  teacher  is 
to  help  a  pupil  study  a  particular  lesson,  what  she  needs 
to  know  is  the  peculiar  action  of  the  mind  in  dealing  with 
such  a  subject.  And  unless  teaching  is  a  purely  mechanical 
process,  the  more  clearly  one  apprehends  the  nature  of 


THE  FETICH  OF  GENERAL  METHOD. 


209 


the  activity  of  which  he  wishes  to  supply  the  conditions, 
the  better  he  can  supply  them. 

Three  Processes  not  Usually  Required.  —  Moreover,  a 
careful  study  of  the  conclusions  we  have  reached  makes 
it  evident  that  in  most  of  the  cases  examined  there  are 
really  not  three  processes  to  which  the  terms  presentation, 
generalization,  and  application  can  be  applied.  The  teach- 
ing of  grammar  is  indeed  intended  to  enable  the  pupil  to 
take  three  steps  to  which  those  names  can  be  given.  But 
in  history  and  arithmetic  there  is  but  one,  and  in  Utera- 
ture  there  are  but  two  such  processes.  For  explanation 
in  history,  and  the  solution  of  a  problem  in  arithmetic,  as 
we  have  seen,  consist  of  the  application  of  what  the  stu- 
dent already  knows.  As  grammatical  analysis  corresponds 
to  one  only  of  the  Herbartian  steps  —  application  —  so 
also  does  reasoning  in  history  and  arithmetic;  while  in 
literature  the  mental  activities  involved  are  imagination 
and  the  perception  of  the  beautiful. 

How  Psychology  may  Help  the  Teacher.  —  A  study  of 
the  history  of  education  makes  one  more  than  doubt 
whether  there  is  not  a  large  measure  of  truth  in  Professor 
Miinsterberg's  contention  that  we  are  disposed  nowadays 
to  lay  undue  stress  on  the  relation  between  psychology  as 
a  science,  and  education.  When  we  remember  the  pro- 
found conception  which  Plato  and  Comenius  had  of  the 
philosophy  of  education,  each  of  them  living  ages  before 
there  was  anything  that  deserved  to  be  called  a  science  of 
psychology,  it  is  difficult  not  to  believe  that  the  most  im- 
portant knowledge  of  the  mind  which  the  teacher  can 
acquire  is  that  which  a  thoughtful  observer  of  his  own 


2IO     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

mental  states  can  obtain.  However  this  may  be,  surely 
nothing  but  confusion  can  result  from  an  analysis  which, 
in  the  supposed  interest  of  simplicity,  tends  to  blur  the 
peculiar  features  of  individual  activities.  In  all  teaching 
there  is  some  material  upon  which  we  wish  the  mind  of  the 
pupil  to  act,  and,  conversely,  some  kind  of  action  which 
we  wish  the  apprehension  of  that  material  to  occasion. 
That  study  of  psychology  is  helpful  which  enables  the 
teacher  to  determine  most  clearly  just  what  mental  activi- 
ties are  to  be  aroused  in  the  pupil  and  how  this  is  to  be 
accomplished. 

Without  doubt  the  doctrine  of  General  Method  has 
done  some  service  in  emphasizing  the  fact  that  unless 
the  acquisitions  of  the  pupil  are  worked  over,  unless  they 
occasion  some  sort  of  mental  activity,  they  are  without 
value.  But  even  this  service  has  not  been  without  its 
drawbacks ;  for  it  has  helped  to  intensify  the  wide-spread 
belief  that  education  is  an  affair  of  the  intellect  alone. 

QUESTIONS   ON  THE   TEXT. 

1.  What  is  meant  by  General  Method? 

2.  State  and  illustrate  what  is  meant  by  preparation,  presenta- 
tion, generalization,  and  application. 

3.  Define  method-whole. 

4.  Upon  what  does  the  validity  of  methods  depend  ? 

5.  State  clearly  what  the  mind  does  when  a  sentence  in  grammar 
is  analyzed. 

6.  To  which  of  the  Herbartian  steps  does  it  correspond,  and  why  ? 

7.  What  are  the  acts  of  the  mind  of  the  pupil  who  is  studying 
history  ? 

8.  In  what  does  historical  explanation  consist? 

9.  To  which  of  the  Herbartian  steps  does  historical  explanation 
correspond  ? 

10.   Point  out  the  difference  between  the  activities  of  the  student 
in  connection  with  grammar,  and  those  in  connection  with  history. 


THE   FETICH   OF   GENERAL   METHOD.  2ii 

11.  Describe  the  mental  processes  involved  in  the  solution  of  si 
problem  in  arithmetic. 

12.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  source  of  your  belief  in  the 
proposition,  All  crows  are  black ;  and  that  of  your  belief  that  two  and 
two  make  four  ? 

13.  How  does  a  teacher  help  his  pupil  to  see  that  he  has  made  a 
mistake  in  solving  a  problem  in  arithmetic  ? 

14.  Describe  the  action  of  the  mind  in  connection  with  the  study 
of  arithmetic. 

15.  Sum  up  the  conclusions  reached  relating  to  the  action  of  the 
mind  in  connection  with  grammar,  history,  arithmetic,  and  literature. 

16.  How  may  the  Herbartian  theory  be  defended  ? 

17.  Is  the  defence  valueless.?     If  so,  why  ? 

18.  What  sort  of  psychology  is  helpful  to  the  teacher  ? 


SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  May  a  given  lesson  —  say  in  history  —  contain  one  method- 
whole  for  pupils  of  a  given  grade,  and  more  for  those  farther  ad- 
vanced ? 

2.  What  law  of  the  mind  makes  preparation  helpful? 

3.  How  can  you  learn  through  observation  what  motives  in- 
fluence people  ? 

4.  Do  you  always  know  what  motives  influence  your  own  actions  ? 

5.  What  is  an  hypothesis?    How  does  it  differ  from  a  theory? 

6.  Give  examples  to  show  that  all  inductive  reasoning  consists  of 
a  process  of  finding  hypotheses  to  explain  facts. 

7.  What  else  do  you  know  in  the  same  way  in  which  you  know 
the  axioms  of  mathematics  ? 

8.  Are  these  axioms  examples  of  necessary  truths  or  necessary 
beliefs  ? 

9.  Study  carefully  the  whole  of  Gray's  Elegy,  and  describe  in 
detail  what  your  mind  does  as  you  study  it. 

10.  What  effect  will  this  attempt  at   analysis    have  upon  your 
enjoyment  of  the  poem? 

11.  What    habit  is  cultivated    by   applying    the  same  term,   for 
example,  generalization,  to  widely  different  things? 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

THE   GRAMMAR-SCHOOL   CURRICULUM. 

Difficulty  of  Mapping  Out  the  Work  Through  the  Grades. 

—  In  one  of  the  preceding  chapters  we  undertook  to  lay 
out  the  work  of  the  child  in  the  primary  grades.  That 
attempt  ought  logically  to  be  followed  by  an  effort  to  map 
out  his  work  through  all  the  grades.  But  the  science  of 
the  growing  mind  is  too  much  in  its  infancy  to  permit  any- 
thing beyond  more  or  less  happy  conjectures  as  to  the 
amount  of  work  that  can  be  wisely  undertaken  by  the  aver- 
age child  during  the  various  periods  of  his  school  life,  and 
as  to  the  time  when  various  kinds  of  work  can  be  most 
economically  done  by  him.  And  we  are  certainly  as  much 
in  the  dark  as  to  the  maximum  of  work  which  we  may 
exact  of  the  very  bright  pupil,  and  the  minimum  that  we 
ought  to  require  of  the  very  dull  one.  For  every  human 
being  in  pursuit  of  education  must  traverse  the  course  in 
his  own  way.  We  teach  our  pupils  in  classes.  But  no 
two  pupils  think  the  same  thoughts,  experience  the  same 
emotions,  or  put  forth  the  same  effort  in  studying  a  lesson. 
Some  master  it  with  ease,  others  comprehend  most  of  it 
after  a  good  deal  of  labor,  while  to  others  still  it  is  a 
puzzle  which  they  are  quite  incapable  of  solving.  Suppose 
that  prior  to  the  invention  of  the  steam-engine  a  hundred 
men  had  started  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  each 
one  bent  on  reaching  his  destination  as  soon  as  might  be. 
It  goes  without  saying  that  only  the  hardiest  and  most  per- 


THE   GRAMMAR-SCHOOL   CURRICULUM. 


213 


sistent  among  them  would  have  arrived  there  at  all ;  that 
those  who  succeeded  would  have  made  the  journey  with 
varying  rates  of  speed,  and  that  those  who  failed  would 
have  given  up  at  different  points  along  the  way.  Nowadays 
mechanical  means  enable  the  puniest  infant  to  cross  the 
continent  as  readily  as  the  strongest  man.  But  there  is  no 
royal  road  to  education.  The  mind  must  depend  upon  its 
own  powers.  And  though  the  teacher  may  tell  his  pupil 
where  the  ascents  are  easiest  and  the  waters  most  shallow, 
the  mountains  must  be  climbed  and  the  rivers  forded  by 
the  pupil  himself  :  there  is  no  other  way. 

Kind  of  Work  to  be  Done —  But  because  we  cannot  say 
how  much  work  should  be  required  of  the  average  pupil, 
or  what  particular  work  he  is  best  fitted  to  do  at  a  given  age, 
it  does  not  follow  that  we  may  not  reach  sound  conclusions 
as  to  the  kind  of  work  we  ought  to  have  him  undertake. 
He  must,  of  course,  learn  the  three  R's  with  more  or  less 
thoroughness.  But  experience  has  shown  that  the  best  way 
to  give  a  child  facility  in  reading  is  to  have  him  read  some- 
thing that  he  cares  about  for  its  own  sake;  and  it  has 
shown  with  equal  clearness  that  the  time  spent  in  teaching 
writing  and  arithmetic  may  be  very  much  shortened.  We 
may,  then,  fairly  assume  that  the  work  upon  which  the 
school  formerly  concentrated  its  entire  attention  may  be 
as  well  or  better  done  incidentally ;  that  instead  of  keep- 
ing —  or  rather  trying  to  keep  —  the  child  employed  with 
the  wearisome  tasks  of  learning  to  read,  write,  and 
"reckon,"  apart  from  anything  he  has  any  interest  in,  we 
can  teach  him  these  arts  quite  as  rapidly  by  teaching  them 
in  connection  with  things  which  it  is  important  for  him  to 
learn.     What  are  these  things  ? 


214     ^   BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

History  and  Literature.  — In  the  first  place,  the  work  in 
history  and  literature,  which  should  begin  in  his  first  year 
at  school,  should  continue  through  all  the  grades.  Reserv- 
ing for  a  separate  chapter  the  discussion  of  the  educational 
value  of  those  subjects,  it  suffices  here  to  point  out  that 
it  is  from  them  that  the  child  derives  all  that  the  school 
teaches  him  about  man.  Regarded  simply  from  the  point 
of  view  of  its  utility,  such  knowledge  will  bear  favorable 
comparison  with  that  of  any  other  subject.  For  we  all 
live  in  society,  come  in  daily  contact  with  men  and  women, 
wise  dealing  with  whom  depends  upon  a  knowledge  of 
human  nature.  And  when  we  remember  how  the  cultiva- 
tion of  sympathy  and  charity,  and  the  formation  of  right 
ideals,  are  dependent  upon  a  knowledge  of  human  nature, 
and  how  all  these  objects,  along  with  a  taste  for  good  read- 
ing, are  promoted  by  the  study  of  literature,  we  begin  to 
see  how  necessary  it  is  that  the  child's  knowledge  of  the 
lives  and  thoughts  of  men  should  be  constantly  enlarging 
all  through  the  grammar-  and,  I  may  add,  the  high-school 
course. 

Boston,  French,  and  Old  Athenian  Schools  Compared.  — 

President  Eliot  made  a  very  instructive  comparison  some 
years  ago  between  the  programme  of  the  first  three  years 
of  the  Boston  grammar  schools  (supplemented  by  the  com- 
plete course  of  the  Boston  Latin  School)  and  that  of  the 
French  secondary  schools.  He  found  that  the  French 
fyc^e  begins  the  teaching  of  history  (in  the  form  of  biog- 
raphy) when  the  pupil  is  eight  years  old,  while  the  Boston 
school  postpones  it  until  the  pupil  is  eleven.  If  he  had 
compared  the  programme  of  the  Boston  school  with  that 
of  the  elementary  school  of  Athens  in  the  time  of  Socrates, 


THE    GRAMMAR-SCHOOL  CURRICULUM.  21 5 

he  would  have  found  materials  for  an  equally  suggestive 
study.  With  the  exception  of  an  hour  a  week  in  music, 
the  Boston  school  devotes  the  entire  time  of  its  pupils 
during  the  first  three  years  to  the  study  of  various  phases 
of  external  nature  —  elementary  science,  geography,  arith- 
metic, science  lessons  as  a  part  of  the  work  in  English  — 
while  the  Athenian  school  reversed  this,  since  it  required 
its  pupils  to  devote  practically  all  of  the  time  spent  on 
study  to  literature.  No  one  would  say  that  the  Athenian 
plan  is  worthy  of  imitation.  But  just  as  little  can  the  Bos- 
ton plan  be  considered  wise.  If  it  is  wrong  not  to  make 
the  child  acquainted  with  such  facts  of  nature  as  can  be 
brought  within  the  range  of  his  comprehension  and  his 
interests,  is  it  not  equally  wrong  not  to  make  him 
acquainted  with  such  thoughts  of  the  great  men  of  the 
world,  and  such  facts  in  their  lives,  as  will  enlarge  his 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  quicken  his  emotions,  and 
ennoble  his  ideals  ?  If  we  remember  that  it  is  reflection 
upon  men,  so  far  as  the  studies  of  the  school  are  con- 
cerned—  upon  the  lives  of  struggling  human  beings  — 
that  helps  us  to  see  what  is  worthy  of  our  admiration  and 
love,  we  shall  begin  to  wonder,  if  blind  imitation  of  either 
model  were  the  alternative,  whether  the  Athenian  model 
is  not  more  worthy  of  imitation  than  that  of  the  Boston 
school. 

The  Amount  of  Reading  Required  by  Massachusetts 
Schools.  —  From  another  point  of  view  this  comparison  of 
the  Athenian  school  with  a  typical  American  school  may 
be  made  to  indicate  even  more  suggestive  conclusions. 
President  Eliot  made  a  careful  study  of  an  "average 
Massachusetts  grammar  school."     Some  of  his  results  had 


216  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

better  be  stated  in  his  own  language :  "  I  turned  next  to 
an  examination  of  the  quantity  of  work  done,  .  .  .  and,  first, 
of  the  amount  of  reading.  The  amount  of  time  given  to 
reading  and  the  study  of  the  English  language  through  the 
spelling-book  and  the  little  grammar  which  are  used  in 
that  school,  and  through  a  variety  of  other  aids  to  the 
learning  of  English,  is  thirty-seven  per  cent  of  all  school 
time  during  six  years.  But  what  is  the  amount  of  reading 
in  this  time  ?  I  procured  two  careful  estimates  of  the  time 
it,  would  take  a  graduate  of  a  high  school  to  read  aloud 
consecutively  all  the  books  which  are  read  in  this  school 
during  six  years,  including  the  history,  the  reading  lessons  in 
geography,  and  the  book  on  manners.  The  estimates  were 
made  by  two  persons  reading  aloud  at  a  moderate  rate, 
and  reading  everything  that  the  children  in  most  of  the 
rooms  of  that  school  have  been  supposed  to  read  during 
their  entire  course  of  six  years.  The  time  occupied  in 
doing  this  reading  was  forty-six  hours.  ...  It  took  one 
and  a  half  hours  to  read  aloud  the  whole  of  one  of  the 
earlier  readers  " ! 

No  critic  of  old  Greek  education  has  left  behind  him  the 
results  of  such  a  study  as  this.  But  we  have  reason  to 
believe  that  when  the  Athenian  boy  of  sixteen  left  school 
he  had  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  great  poets  of 
Greece,  especially  Homer  and  Hesiod,  large  portions  of 
whose  works  he  had  learned  by  heart. 

Arithmetic.  —  The  amount  of  time  usually  given  to  the 
study  of  arithmetic  should  be  much  curtailed.  President 
Eliot  found  that  the  Boston  boy  is  required  to  study  arith- 
metic three  hours  to  every  one  that  the  French  boy  is 
required  to  study  the  same  subject,      American  schools 


THE   GRAMMAR-SCHOOL  CURRICULUM.  217 

are  still  under  the  influence  of  the  notion  that  the  study  of 
arithmetic  is  especially  valuable  because  of  its  cultivation 
of  the  reasoning  powers.  I  have  attempted  elsewhere  to 
show  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  general  cultivation 
of  the  power  to  reason  ;  that  facility  in  reasoning  gained  in 
connection  with  any  particular  subject  is  helpful  in  reason- 
ing on  similar  subjects,  and  that  its  helpfulness  decreases 
as  subjects  become  more  and  more  dissimilar,  until  it  finally 
disappears  altogether.  It  follows  from  this  that  the  culti- 
vation of  the  reasoning  power  gained  from  the  study  of 
arithmetic  is  useful  in  the  study  of  all  other  branches  of 
mathematics,  and  in  the  study  of  those  subjects,  such  as 
physics  and  astronomy,  in  which  the  quantitative  relations 
of  the  facts  are  an  important  element,  but  that  in  the  study 
of  such  subjects  as  history,  literature,  and  psychology  it 
is  of  little  or  no  value.  It  is  more  than  doubtful,  for  ex- 
ample, whether  the  severe  study  of  arithmetic  would  make 
any  material  difference  in  a  man^s  capacity,  as  a  juryman, 
to  draw  sound  conclusions  from  a  tangled  mass  of  evidence, 
or,  as  a  citizen,  to  trace  admitted  governmental  evils  to 
their  source.  His  training  in  arithmetic  has  only  taught 
him  how  to  apply  self-evident  principles  to  their  proper 
cases ;  his  work  as  a  juror  demands  the  careful  weighing 
of  doubtful  evidence,  and  the  rigid  exclusion  of  all  influ- 
ences that  might  arise  from  prejudice,  sympathy,  and  the 
like.  Facility  in  the  one  kind  of  reasoning  is  no  more  a 
guaranty  of  facility  in  the  other  than  is  proficiency  in  play- 
ing golf  of  proficiency  in  playing  chess. 

The  primary  purpose,  then,  of  the  study  of  arithmetic  is 
the  ability  to  determine  the  quantitative  relations  of  facts 
not  only  in  connection  with  business,  but  with  all  the  facts 
of  that  description  with  which  the  mind  has  to  do.     To 


21 8     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

this  end,  a  knowledge  of  the  four  fundamental  rules,  of 
simple  and  decimal  fractions,  of  the  simple  applications  of 
percentage,  of  simple  interest  and  discount,  with  a  few 
of  the  simple  rules  of  mensuration,  will  suffice.^ 

Political  Geography.  —  Much  of  the  time  spent  in  the 
study  of  political  geography  should  be  given  to  a  different 
phase  of  the  subject  from  that  which  generally  receives 
the  lion's  share  of  attention.  The  centre  of  gravity  should 
be  shifted.  Instead  of  learning  about  places  primarily  and 
people  incidentally,  the  important  matter  should  be  the 
people  of  a  country,  the  country  itself  only  receiving  atten- 
tion as  it  throws  light  on  the  people.  Many  gray-haired 
men  to-day  are  unable  to  recall  without  a  feeling  of  exas- 
peration their  having  been  required  as  boys  to  learn  that 
Dover,  the  capital  of  Delaware,  is  situated  on  Jones's 
Greek  !  As  though,  in  the  first  place,  it  made  any  differ- 
ence in  what  town  the  legislature  of  the  State  met,  and,  in 
the  second,  on  what  creek  it  was  situated.  That  sort  of 
knowledge,  like  the  knowledge  of  the  boundaries  of  our 
States,  has  no  intrinsic  importance.  No  one  is  wiser  or 
more  capable  through  knowing  them.     We  need  to  know 

1  Dr.  Wm.  H.  Maxwell  has  made  some  suggestive  remarks  about  arith- 
metic which  deserve  to  be  quoted  at  length :  "  There  is  probably  more 
time  wasted  in  the  teaching  of  arithmetic  than  in  the  teaching  of  any  other 
subject.  Long  problems  are  given  instead  of  short ;  intricate  ones  instead 
of  simple;  things  unlike  the  operations  of  actual  life  instead  of  what  is 
practical.  Children  are  burdened  with  dreadful  'examples'  for  'home 
work '  which,  if  solved  at  all,  are  solved  by  the  aid  of  parents  or  older 
brothers  and  sisters.  Time  is  consumed  in  work  which  children  cannot 
possibly  understand  or  appreciate.  The  most  widely  used  arithmetics  are 
attempts  to  present  the  arithmetical  operations  supposed  to  be  involved  in 
every  line  of  human  activity,  commercial,  monetary,  and  manufacturing. 
Time  was  when  it  was  considered  sufficient  to  learn  by  rote  definitions 


THE   GRAMMAR-SCHOOL  CURRICULUM.  219 

in  what  part  of  the  country  a  given  State  is  —  whether  it 
is  in  New  England,  or  is  one  of  the  Middle,  or  Southern, 
or  Middle  Western,  or  Pacific  Slope  States.  But  no  very 
important  purpose  is  served  by  attempting  to  carry  in  the 
mind  such  knowledge  as  the  detailed  boundaries  and  the 
capitals  of  the  various  States.  It  is  a  sort  of  knowledge 
which  every  one  except  the  teacher  of  geography  will  for- 
get, leaving  no  trace  behind  except  an  irritating  recollec- 
tion of  misspent  time. 

Nature  Study.  —  That  first-hand  study  of  nature  — 
study  by  means  of  "demonstrations  and  practical  exer- 
cises rather  than  from  books,**  including  botany,  zoology, 
geology,  and  physical  geography  in  the  earlier,  and  ele- 

of  technical  terms  employed,  to  memorize  a  rule  without  understanding  its 
reasons,  and  to  apply  it  to  the  solution  of  problems  precisely  worded. 
When  the  rule  was  forgotten,  or  the  problem  differently  worded,  the  power 
of  solution  was  obliterated.  But  no  matter;  unreasonable  work  of  this 
kind  was  thought  in  some  inexplicable  way  to  train  the  reasoning  powers ; 
the  child  was  supposed  to  learn  to  think  by  a  process  that  required  no 
thinking.  The  doctrine  of  apperception  has  changed  all  our  ideas  on  this 
matter.  .  .  . 

"  If  the  presence  in  the  pupil's  mind  of  an  experience  necessary  to  inter- 
pret the  new  facts,  and  utility  in  practical  life,  are  to  be  taken  as  criteria, 
the  following  topics  may  not  only  with  safety,  but  with  positive  benefit,  be 
eliminated  from  the  grammar-school  course:  cube-root,  equation  of  pay- 
ments, compound  proportion,  partnership,  exchange,  true  discount,  partial 
payments,  bonds  and  stocks,  and  the  greater  part  of  what  goes  by  the  name 
of  mensuration.  If,  in  addition  to  this  wholesale  eUmination,  useless  tables 
and  parts  of  tables  were  dropped ;  if  properties  of  numbers,  factoring,  can- 
cellation, least  common  multiple,  and  greatest  common  divisor  were  taught 
incidentally,  as  they  are  needed,  in  connection  with  fractions,  much  time 
that  now  goes  to  waste  would  be  saved.  Cities  that  now  give  twenty-five 
per  cent  of  the  whole  time  of  school  to  the  teaching  of  arithmetic  might 
with  advantage  cut  that  amount  down  by  at  least  one  half."  (Educatioiial 
Review,  Vol.  III.  pp.  475-477.) 


aiO  A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

mentaxy  physics  in  the  later,  years  of  the  course  —  should 
continue  all  through  the  grades,  is  an  inevitable  inference 
from  conclusions  already  reached.  Obedience  to  the  laws 
of  nature  forms  a  large  part  of  the  rational  living  which 
it  is  the  object  of  education  to  prepare  us  for.  Now  in 
order  to  obey  these  laws  we  must  know  them  so  thoroughly 
as  to  realize  that  no  one  can  violate  them  without  suffering 
the  consequences.  That  sort  of  knowledge  can  only  be 
got  by  an  experimental  study  of  the  subject. 

Electives.  —  I  believe  also  that  a  foreign  language  — 
French  or  German  preferably  —  and  algebra  and  geometry 
should  be  offered  as  electives  in  the  grammar  school :  the 
former  to  pupils  of  eleven  or  younger,  and  the  latter  to 
boys  and  girls  of  thirteen  or  fourteen.  I  cannot  agree 
with  the  Committee  of  Ten  in  thinkmg  that  the  grammar- 
school  students  should  study  the  same  subjects  whether 
they  intend  to  go  to  college  or  not.  That  the  child  of  ten 
or  eleven  can  learn  French  or  German  with  as  much 
facility  as  at  any  later  period  of  his  life  may  fairly  be 
regarded  as  an  established  fact.  If  he  is  to  go  on  to  the 
high  school  and  college,  it  seems  clear  that  it  would  be  an 
economical  use  of  his  time  to  begin  the  study  of  a  foreign 
language  at  that  age.  But  if  he  is  not  to  go  beyond  the 
grammar  school,  it  would  seem  unwise  to  require  him  to 
lay  the  foundation  of  a  structure  that  he  is  almost  certain 
never  to  complete.  Few  thoughtful  persons  would  say 
that  the  leisure  hours  of  a  workingman  would  be  most 
wisely  spent  in  the  slow  and  laborious  reading  of  French 
or  German  books.  If  his  tastes  are  sufficiently  intellectual 
to  make  that  possible,  it  would  be  much  easier  to  develop 
in  him  such  an  interest  in  literature  or  science  or  history 


THE  GRAMMAR-SCHOOL  CURRICULUM.  211 

as  will  enable  him  to  use  his  spare  time  in  a  more  profitable 
way. 

Similar  considerations  justify  the  belief  that  the  student 
who  intends  to  go  on  to  the  high  school  should  be  encour- 
aged —  perhaps  required  —  to  elect  geometry  and  algebra 
in  the  later  years  of  his  course.  Experience  has  shown 
that  many  grammar-school  students  have  the  capacity  to 
understand  the  more  elementary  phases  of  these  subjects, 
and  the  relation  of  the  latter  to  the  work  of  the  high 
school  makes  it  desirable  that  they  should  be  taken  up  in 
the  grammar  grades  by  those  who  intend  to  get  a  high- 
school  education. 

Language  and  Grammar.  —  The  work  in  language  and 
grammar  ought  to  be  incidental  to  the  other  work  of  the 
school,  particularly  history  and  literature.  Such  instruc- 
tion in  grammar  as  the  student  needs  in  his  language  work 
can  easily  be  given  in  incidental  oral  lessons.  The  sys- 
tematic study  of  technical  grammar  should  be  postponed  to 
the  high  school,  since  that  subject  deals  with  conceptions 
quite  beyond  the  grasp  of  the  average  grammar-school 
pupil. 

Elements  of   a   Liberal  Education  from  the  Start. — 

Such,  if  we  consult  reason  rather  than  tradition,  would 
seem  to  be  the  character  of  a  course  of  study  which  aims 
to  give  the  elements  of  a  liberal  education  from  the  start. 
For  we  need  clearly  to  understand  that  the  difference  be- 
tween the  proposed  and  the  traditional  course  is  precisely 
this  :  the  one  never  loses  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  pupil  is 
to  be  trained  all  through  the  grades  for  the  noblest  pur- 
poses of  life  ;  the  other  treats  him  primarily  as  a  tool  which 


0.22  A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

is  to  be  sharpened  for  its  work  by  being  qualified  to  do 
mechanical  tasks  more  or  less,  and  does  not  even  do  this 
intelligently.  As  Dr.  Maxwell  puts  it  in  the  article  already 
quoted  from :  "  The  existing  course  is  chiefly  a  memory 
course.  It  consumes  the  most  plastic  years  of  life  in  the 
futile  attempt  to  memorize  the  spelling  of  thousands  of 
words  that  find  no  place  in  the  pupil's  vocabulary;  to 
memorize  innumerable  details  in  geography  that  are  of  no 
practical  value;  ...  to  memorize  rules  and  processes  in 
arithmetic  that  he  will  never  use,  and  the  reasons  of  which 
are  beyond  his  *ken';  and  to  memorize  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  before  he  is  capable  of  giving  it  a  liberal 
interpretation.  The  proposed  plan,  on  the  other  hand, 
would  confine  the  study  of  subjects  now  in  the  curriculum 
to  what  is  well  within  the  mental  grasp  of  children,  and 
utilize  the  time  thus  gained  by  the  introduction  of  studies, 
such  as  elementary  algebra,  inventional  geometry,  elemen- 
tary experimental  physics,  and  a  modern  language.  After 
such  a  course  the  average  public-school  pupil  would  not 
only  know  what  he  has  learned  —  something  that  cannot 
now  be  said  of  him  with  truth  —  but  he  would  have  begun 
to  acquire  the  knowledges  and  to  develop  the  powers  that 
mark  the  liberally  educated  man.*'  * 

QUESTIONS   ON  THE   TEXT. 

1.  Why  is  it  impossible  to  map  out  definitely  the  work  all  through 
the  grades  ? 

2.  Why  should  history  and  literature  be  taught  through  all  the 
grades  ? 

3.  In  what  particular  is  a  comparison  of  Boston  and  French  and 
old  Athenian  schools  suggestive? 

1  Educational  Review,  Vol.  III.  p.  480. 


THE   GRAMMAR-SCHOOL  CURRICULUM.  223 

4.  How  much  reading  is  required  by  an  average  Massachusetts 
grammar  school  ? 

5.  Why  do  American  schools  give  so  much  time  to  the  study  of 
arithmetic  ? 

6.  Is  the  reason  sound  ? 

7.  What  is  the  primary  purpose  of  the  study  of  arithmetic? 

8.  "  The  centre  of  gravity  "  in  the  teaching  of  political  geography 
"  should  be  shifted.  "    Explain. 

9.  What  is  meant  by  "first-hand  study  of  nature"? 

10.  Why  should  it  go  on  all  through  the  grades? 

11.  What  electives  should  be  offered  in  the  grammar  school,  and 
why? 

12.  In  what  way  may  the  elements  of  a  liberal  education  be  given 
from  the  start? 

SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  Is  it  precisely  true  that  there  is  no  royal  road  to  education? 

2.  Has  the  case  of  Abraham  Lincoln  any  bearing  on  this  point? 

3.  Do  you  believe  that  the  elements  of  a  liberal  education  may  be 
given  from  the  first  day  a  child  enters  school? 

4.  Do  you  think  that  grammar-school  pupils  should  be  required 
to  study  the  same  subjects  whether  they  are  going  to  college  or  not? 

5.  What  does  Dr.  Maxwell  mean  by  the  "  neat,  plastic  years  of 
life"? 

6.  What  are  the  "  knowledges  "  and  the  "  powers  "  that  mark  the 
liberally  educated  man? 


Of  the 
UNIVERSITY 

OF 


CHAPTER    XX. 

THE   MOST    IMPORTANT   PROBLEM   OF   PUBLIC- 
SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION. 

Man  and  Nature  the  Central  Subjects.  —  It  will  probably 
be  objected  that  the  work  suggested  in  the  preceding 
chapter  cannot  be  accomplished.  The  reply  to  this  is  that 
no  definite  amount  of  work  has  been  proposed.  The 
contention  is  that  man  and  nature  should  be  the  central 
subjects  of  study  from  the  time  the  child  begins  his  school 
life  until  he  leaves  the  grammar  school.  How  much 
history  and  literature,  how  much  botany,  zoology,  geology, 
geography,  and  physics  the  average  pupil  can  learn  no  one 
can  yet  say.  But  it  does  appear  indubitable  that  these 
ought  to  be  the  central  subjects  of  study  ;  that  instead  of 
treating  grammar  and  arithmetic  and  language  lessons  and 
spelling  as  the  primarily  important  matters,  the  world, 
the  human  race,  with  members  of  which  he  must  come 
in  daily  contact,  should  receive  the  greater  part  of  his 
attention. 

But  we  cannot  form  an  intelligent  opinion  as  to  how 
much  work  can  be  done  in  the  grammar  school  until  we 
make  persistent  and  intelligent  efforts  to  give  our  pupils 
an  opportunity  to  do  the  work  they  are  fitted  to  do.  As 
long  as  we  deal  with  an  abstraction  called  "  the  average 
pupil,"  until  we  concentrate  our  attention  on  individual 
boys  and  girls  in  order  that  we  may  adapt  their  work  to 
their  needs  and  capabilities,  until  we  realize  that  it  is  as 

224 


THE   MOST   IMPORTANT   PROBLEM. 


125 


absurd  to  confine  the  mind  of  one  boy  to  a  thin  diet 
because  the  mind  of  another  can  assimilate  nothing  more 
substantial,  as  it  would  be  to  feed  a  healthy  boy  on  gruel 
because  his  sick  brother  requires  that  sort  of  food,  we 
ought  to  know  that  we  have  no  right  to  talk  about  what 
the  grammar  school  can  do.  I  believe  that  President 
Eliot  uttered  a  profound  truth  when  he  remarked  that  "  to 
discriminate  between  pupils  of  different  capacity,  to  select 
the  competent  for  suitable  instruction,  and  to  advance  each 
pupil  with  appropriate  rapidity,  will  ultimately  become  the 
most  important  functions  of  the  public-school  administra- 
tor—  those  functions  in  which  he  or  she  will  be  most 
serviceable  to  families  and  to  the  state/* 

Need  of  Adapting  Work  to  Individual  Students.  —  Why 

serviceable  to  families  ?  Because  the  fathers  and  mothers 
of  our  children,  dull  as  well  as  bright,  are  deeply  interested 
in  having  the  work  of  their  boys  and  girls  adapted  to  their 
capabilities.  When  that  is  not  done,  injury  results  to  the 
dull  boy  by  being  burdened  with  more  than  he  can  carry, 
and  to  the  bright  boy  by  being  held  back  for  the  sake  of 
his  slower  classmates. 

Why  serviceable  to  the  state  ?  Because  the  state,  and  a 
democratic  state  most  of  all,  has  a  vital  concern  in  the 
proper  education  of  its  citizens. 

Why  the  Integrity  of  the  College  is  Threatened. —  The 

integrity  of  the  American  college  is  very  seriously  threat- 
ened because  our  school  superintendents  have  not  yet  gen- 
erally realized  their  obligation  to  promote  bright  pupils  to 
a  higher  grade  as  soon  as  these  are  capable  of  doing  the 
work  of  that  grade.     Because  this  is  not  done,  our  sons 


226  A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

and  daughters  are  often  sixteen  or  seventeen  before  they 
enter  the  high  school,  and  twenty-three  or  twenty-four  when 
their  student  life  at  college  ends.  If  they  intend  to  enter 
one  of  the  professions  or  fill  any  position  which  requires  a 
technical  knowledge  of  applied  science,  they  must  spend 
three  years  more  in  a  professional  school,  so  that  they  are 
at  least  twenty-six  before  they  are  ready  to  begin  their  life- 
work.  Now  it  is  only  the  well-to-do  who  can  afford  to 
prolong  the  education  of  their  children  to  such  an  age. 
The  sons  and  daughters  of  people  in  ordinary  circumstances 
must,  for  their  own  sakes  and  for  the  sake  of  their  parents, 
take  up  the  burden  of  self-support  at  an  earlier  age.  In 
order  to  meet  this  difficulty  it  has  recently  been  proposed 
by  President  Butler  to  reduce  the  college  course  to  two 
years  for  students  who  purpose  taking  a  further  course  at 
a  technical  or  professional  school.  In  other  words,  he  pro- 
poses to  make  the  completion  of  a  two-  instead  of  a  four- 
year  college  course  the  condition  of  admission  to  professional 
schools,  in  order  that  the  graduates  of  those  schools  may 
engage  in  "  the  active  and  independent  participation  of  the 
practical  work  in  life  "  two  years  earlier  than  they  are  now 
able  to  do. 

President  Hyde  said  not  long  ago  that ''  nearly  all  the  dis- 
tinguished alumni  of  Bowdoin  College  graduated  at  about 
the  present  average  age  of  entrance,  and  were  well  launched 
on  their  professional  careers  at  about  the  age  at  which  our 
students  now  graduate.*'  Among  the  cases  which  he  cited 
were  those  of  Jacob  Abbott  and  William  Pitt  Fessenden, 
who  were  graduated  before  they  were  seventeen ;  Long- 
fellow, who  was  through  college  at  eighteen;  Franklin 
Pierce,  John  A.  Andrew,  Fordyce  Barker,  and  Egbert 
Smyth,  who  had  completed  the  course  at  nineteen ;  and 


THE  MOST  IMPORTANT  PROBLEM.       227 

William    P.    Frye  and   Melville   W.  Fuller,  graduated  at 
twenty.^ 

Does  any  one  seriously  doubt  that  a  Longfellow  could 
to-day  complete  an  eight-year  grammar-school  course  in 
five  years  ?  Or  that  he  could  finish  the  four-year  second- 
ary and  the  four-year  college  course  in  seven  more  ?  Prob- 
ably every  one  of  the  men  mentioned  by  President  Hyde 
could  have  done  so  rapidly  the  work  now  prescribed  by  the 
grammar  and  high  schools  as  to  enter  college  almost  as 
soon  as  he  actually  did.  President  Eliot  cites  a  grammar- 
school  principal  who  testified  that  nearly  one  quarter  of 
the  pupils  in  his  school  of  about  six  hundred  and  fifty  chil- 
dren were  doing  two  years'  work  in  one.^  Few  thoughtful 
persons  would  say  that  American  society  ought  to  encour- 
age even  one  fourth  of  our  grammar-school  pupils  to  look 
forward  to  a  college  education.  It  is  only  a  small  minority, 
composed  of  conspicuously  capable  pupils,  who  can  benefit 
either  themselves  or  society  by  endeavoring  to  acquire 
that  thorough  and  severe  training  which  the  college  is  in- 
tended to  give.  The  case,  then,  may  be  put  as  follows : 
the  college  course  need  not  be  shortened  in  order  that 
really  able  students  may  finish  their  professional  education 
fully  three  years  earlier  than  they  now  can.  But  to 
shorten  the  course  in  order  to  enable  mediocre  men  to 
complete  their  professional  education  and  begin  the  practi- 
cal work  of  life  earlier  would  be  to  encourage  men  to  enter 
the  professions  who  ought  not  to  enter  them  at  all. 

Responsibilities  of  the  Learned  Professions.  —  The  reason 
for  this  statement  will  be   evident   if  we  consider  **the 

^  Columbia  University  Bulletins  of  Information,  No.  i  (1902),  p.  39. 
2  Educational  Reform,  p.  254. 


V: 


228     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

responsibilities  and  opportunity  of  the  learned  professions." 
They  were  forcibly  stated  in  a  recent  address  made  by 
President  Eliot,  as  follows  :  **  It  is  plain  that  the  future 
prosperity  and  progress  of  modern  communities  is  here- 
after going  to  depend  much  more  than  ever  before  on  the 
large  groups  of  highly  trained  men  which  constitute  what 
are  called  the  professions.  The  social  and  industrial 
powers,  and  the  moral  influences  which  strengthen  and 
uplift  modern  society,  are  no  longer  in  the  hands  of 
legislatures,  or  political  parties,  or  public  men.  All  these 
agencies  are  becoming  secondary  and  subordinate  influ- 
ences. They  neither  originate  nor  lead  ;  they  sometimes 
regulate  and  set  bounds,  and  often  impede.  The  real 
incentives  and  motive  powers  which  impel  society  forward 
and  upward  spring  from  those  bodies  of  well-trained,  alert, 
and  progressive  men  known  as  the  professions.  They  give 
effect  to  the  discoveries  or  imaginings  of  genius.  All  the 
large  businesses  and  new  enterprises  depend  for  their 
success  on  the  advice  and  cooperation  of  the  profes- 
sions." 

If  this  is  true,  if  society  is  guided  in  its  onward  and 
upward  march  by  the  professions,  then  the  qualifications 
which  professional  men  ought  to  possess  should  be  clearly 
determined.  Positively,  they  needs  must  have  that  large- 
ness of  vision,  that  soundness  and  soberness  of  judgment, 
without  which  they  cannot  exert  a  beneficent  influence  on 
society.  Negatively,  they  ought  not  to  be  narrow  special- 
ists however  able,  or  men  of  mediocre  abilities  no  matter 
how  well  trained.  In  endeavoring  to  ascertain  the  qualifi- 
cations of  a  man  we  are  prone  to  content  ourselves  with 
one  question  when  we  ought  to  ask  two.  If  a  man  has 
had  the  advantages  of  the  best  schools  in  this  country  and 


THE  MOST  IMPORTANT  PROBLEM. 


229 


Europe,  we  are  wont  to  assume  that  he  is  well  equipped  to 
undertake  any  work  within  his  field. 

We  ought  to  know  that  all  that  education  can  do  is  to 
make  potential  capacities  actual,  and  that  a  student  who 
brings  to  the  school  only  mediocre  potentialities  can  take 
away  from  it  little  more  than  mediocre  powers.  But,  as 
has  been  said,  mediocrity  cannot  acquire  that  breadth  of 
view  which  the  directing  powers  of  society  ought  to  have. 

This  understood,  the  duty  and  the  interest  of  American 
society  are  clear.  It  ought  to  employ  every  proper  meas- 
ure to  keep  all  but  able  men  out  of  the  professions.  The 
fact,  therefore,  that  existing  educational  conditions  make 
it  difficult  for  mediocre  men  to  enter  them  is  a  strong 
argument  for  keeping  those  conditions  as  they  are.  The 
Utopia  of  the  great  philosophic  dreamer  was  only  a  means 
of  getting  the  directing  powers  of  society  into  the  hands  of 
those  best  qualified  to  wield  them.  Society  in  America 
will  work  consciously  and  definitely  towards  that  end  when 
it  strives  to  put  the  formation  or  modification  of  public 
opinion  into  the  hands  of  those  most  fit  to  do  it  intelli- 
gently. We  cannot,  perhaps,  keep  incompetent  men  out 
of  our  State  legislatures  and  the  halls  of  Congress  ;  but  if 
we  can  coerce  them  by  a  sound  public  opinion  to  do  their 
duty,  we  shall  not  suffer  greatly. 

Do  Existing  Conditions  Discriminate  Against  the  Poor  ?  — 
It  may  be  said  that  existing  educational  arrangements  prac- 
tically discriminate  in  favor  of  the  rich  against  the  poor ; 
that  while  the  rich  aspirant  can  afford  to  wait  until  he  is 
twenty-six  or  twenty-seven  before  he  enters  a  profession, 
the  poor  man  cannot ;  also  that  the  poor  man  of  mediocre 
abilities  has  as  g6od  a  right  to  enter  the  professions  as  the 


ajO     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

rich  man  with  no  better  qualifications.  To  this  the  reply 
is  that  in  such  a  world  as  ours  we  must  be  content  with 
approximations  to  ideal  conditions.  But  it  is  not  so  clear 
as  it  may  seem  that  the  rich  man  is  favored  by  being  per- 
mitted to  undertake  work  for  which  he  is  not  fitted,  or 
that  it  is  a  hardship  to  the  poor  man  of  mediocre  talent 
to  be  debarred.  The  desirable  thing  is  that  every  mem- 
ber of  society  shall  do  with  all  his  might  the  work  he  is 
best  fitted  to  do.  Will  any  one  venture  the  assertion  that 
this  is  not  also  the  way  to  live  a  happy  life  ?  Louis  XVI. 
of  France  would  have  made  an  excellent  locksmith,  but 
destiny  in  the  form  of  unintelligent  governmental  machin- 
ery imposed  upon  him  a  task  for  which  he  was  utterly 
unfitted,  and  the  result  was  a  short  and  unhappy  life  sum- 
marily ended  by  the  guillotine. 

Injury  to  all  Grades  of  Schools  Through  Disregard  of  the 
Unequal  Capacities  of  Pupils. —  It  cannot  be  too  emphati- 
cally proclaimed,  then,  that  a  system  of  promotion  which  dis- 
regards the  unequal  capacities  of  pupils,  or  only  takes  note 
of  them  by  compelling  the  duller  and  less  industrious  pupils 
to  perform  a  second  time  the  work  of  an  entire  grade,  not 
only  strikes  at  society  through  the  colleges  and  universities, 
but  through  the  schools  all  along  the  line.  Dr.  Maxwell 
has  forcibly  and  succinctly  stated  the  case  as  follows:  "  On 
account  of  this  system  of  retardation,  fewer  children  reach 
the  higher  grades,  fewer  youths  reach  the  high  schools, 
fewer  young  men  reach  the  universities,  the  professional 
schools  are  filled  with  students  of  grossly  defective  schol- 
arship, and  the  learned  professions  are  choked  up  with  men 
of  inferior  education  and  training.'*  ^ 

1  Educational  Review,  Vol.  III.  p.  474. 


THE   MOST   IMPORTANT   PROBLEM. 


QUESTIONS   ON   THE   TEXT, 


231 


1.  What  is  the  most  important  problem  of  public-school  adminis- 
tration ? 

2.  In  what  way  would  adapting  work  to  individual  students 
promote  the  interest  of  families  and  the  state? 

3.  How  and  why  is  the  integrity  of  the  American  college 
threatened  ? 

4.  Show  that  the  college  course  need  not  be  shortened  to  make  it 
possible  for  able  students  to  finish  their  professional  education  three 
years  earlier  than  they  now  do. 

5.  What  is  President  Eliot's  opinion  as  to  the  responsibilities  of 
the  learned  professions  ? 

6.  How  does  that  affect  the  argument  for  shortening  the  course  of 
the  American  college  ? 

7.  What  two  questions  ought  we  to  ask  where  we  are  endeavoring 
to  ascertain  a  man's  qualifications  ? 

8.  Show  that  existing  educational  conditions  do  not  discriminate 
against  the  poor. 

9.  Show  that  disregard  of  the  unequal  capacities  of  pupils  inflicts 
injury  upon  the  college  and  university  as  well  as  upon  schools  of  a 
lower  grade. 

SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  Do  you  accept  the  conclusion  of  this  chapter  ? 

2.  Why  do  so  few  superintendents  attempt  to  promote  their  pupils 
as  fast  as  they  can  do  the  work  of  the  higher  grade  ? 

3.  Do  our  conclusions  in  relation  to  imitation  throw  any  light  on 
the  desirability  of  forming  a  sound  public  opinion  ? 

4.  Whom  does  the  text  mean  by  "  the  great  philosophic  dreamer"  ? 

5.  How  would  you  determine  success  in  life — by  the  positions 
a  man  fills,  or  by  the  thoroughness  and  completeness  with  which  he 
does  what  he  undertakes  ? 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

DEPARTMENTAL  INSTRUCTION  IN  THE  GPLA.MMAR 
SCHOOL. 

Proposed  Transformation  Objected  to  as  Impracticable. — 

An  earlier  chapter  has  insisted  that  the  course  of  study- 
in  the  grammar  school  should  be  arranged  with  a  view  to 
providing  the  elements  of  a  liberal  education,  and  that  there- 
fore it  should  be  transformed  by  making  man  and  nature 
the  central  subject  of  study.  But  the  practical  schoolman 
objects  that  this  cannot  be  done ;  that  the  teacher  is 
already  overworked ;  that  the  proposed  transformation, 
laying  emphasis  as  it  does  upon  content  rather  than  form, 
would  require  not  only  detailed  knowledge  of  a  great  vari- 
ety of  subjects,  but  special  preparation  to  teach  them,  and 
that  this,  under  existing  conditions,  would  be  impossible. 

Is  the  Existing  System  Sacred?  — This  may  be  freely 
granted.  As  Dr.  Maxwell  puts  it :  "  Under  the  existing 
system  it  is  not  possible  to  lay  any  greater  burden  on  the 
shoulders  of  either  teacher  or  pupil  than  they  are  now 
called  upon  to  bear.  Each  teacher  teaches  a  little  bit  of 
each  of  the  subjects  —  often  as  many  as  eight  or  ten  — 
assigned  to  her  grade.  Each  pupil  learns  a  little  bit  of  the 
eight  or  ten  subjects.  ...  To  introduce  new  subjects 
would  increase  the  burden  intolerably.  The  introduction 
of  new  subjects  under  existing  conditions  is  out  of  the 
question." 

232 


DEPARTMENTAL   INSTRUCTION. 


^33 


But  if  the  proposed  course  is  demanded  by  the  best 
interests  of  the  pupil  —  if  it  proposes  to  treat  him  as  a 
human  being  with  capacities  that  are  to  be  developed  and 
freed  for  the  highest  uses  of  humanity ;  if  it  looks  upon 
him  as  having  powers  that  may  be  so  trained  as  to  make 
his  nature  an  addition  to  the  things  that  make  the  world 
worth  while  —  instead  of  weakly  abandoning  this  proposed 
course  without  more  ado  because  existing  conditions  make 
its  introduction  impossible,  we  are  bound  to  raise  the  ques- 
tion whether  there  is  any  reason  in  the  nature  of  the  case 
why  a  single  teacher  should  continue  to  teach  her  pupils 
all  the  subjects  assigned  to  them  in  her  grade ;  whether 
the  existing  system  is  so  sacred  that  to  lay  hands  upon  it 
would  be  sacrilegious. 

The  Grammar  and  the  High  School  Compared.  —  Teach- 
ing in  the  high  school  is  done  by  specialists.  Under  the 
existing  system  the  student  leaves  the  grammar  school  in 
which  a  single  teacher  has  taught  him  all  the  subjects  he 
has  studied  in  a  particular  grade,  to  enter  a  school  in 
which  he  may  have  as  many  different  teachers  as  he  has 
studies.  Upon  what  ground  can  this  abrupt  change  be  jus- 
tified ?  What  constitutes  the  line  that  separates  the  gram- 
mar school  from  the  high  school,  a  Rubicon  the  crossing 
of  which  portends  such  fundamental  changes  in  the  nature 
of  the  educational  influences  that  are  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  student  ?  The  more  this  question  is  considered  the 
more  unanswerable  will  it  seem.  Either  our  method  in 
the  high  school  is  right  and  that  in  the  upper  grades  of 
the  grammar  school  wrong,  or  the  latter  is  right  and  the 
former  wrong.  If  specialists  to  teach  history  and  litera- 
ture and  natural  science  and  mathematics  are  needed  in 


234     ^   BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

the  high  school,  it  would  be  difficult  to  show  why  not  in 
the  upper  grades  of  the  grammar  school.  If  they  are  not 
required  in  the  latter,  it  would  be  difficult  to  explain  why 
they  are  to  be  deemed  necessary  in  the  high  school. 

Why  Specialists  are  not  Needed  Through  All  the 
Grades.  —  It  may  be  urged  that  this  argument  proves  too 
much ;  that  the  same  reasoning  might  be  used  to  prove 
that  we  should  have  specialists  in  all  the  grades  because 
we  have  them  in  the  high  school.  This  objection  will  not 
bear  examination  from  the  point  of  view  of  those  who  ac- 
cept the  conclusions  of  a  preceding  chapter  of  this  book.^ 
It  was  there  pointed  out  that  while  in  the  first  years  of  a 
child's  school  life  concentration  should  be  the  rule,  every 
one  admits  that  at  some  point  in  his  education  specializa- 
tion must  begin ;  and  it  was  argued  that  specialization  — 
the  study  of  facts  in  their  logical  relations  —  should  begin 
when  his  intellect  **  is  sufficiently  developed  to  enable  him 
to  rethink  systematic,  connected  thoughts,  and  when  his 
interest  in  such  activity  is  sufficiently  great  to  enable  him 
to  perform  it  without  unduly  taxing  the  will." 

Now  those  who  admit  this  will  certainly  not  deny  that 
the  transition  from  a  system  in  which  concentration  (the 
consideration  of  facts  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  principle 
of  mechanical  association)  is  the  rule  to  a  system  in  which 
specialization  (the  consideration  of  facts  from  the  point  of 
view  of  logical  association)  is  the  rule,  marks  an  epoch  in 
the  child's  educational  history.  This  transition  denotes  a 
psychological  era  in  the  child's  development ;  that  from  the 
grammar  school  to  the  high  school  does  not.  Therefore 
no  psychological  reason  exists  why  there  should  be  any 

1  Chapter  XVII. 


DEPARTMENTAL   INSTRUCTION. 


^3S 


difference  between  the  mode  in  which  the  work  is  done  in 
the  high  school  and  that  in  which  it  is  done  in  the  upper 
grades  of  the  grammar  school ;  there  is  a  reason  for  making 
a  distinction  between  the  method  employed  in  the  primary- 
grades  and  that  adopted  in  the  upper  grades  of  the  grammar 
school.  Those,  therefore,  who  defend  the  existing  system 
ought  to  be  able  to  prove  that  the  psychological  epoch  from 
which  dates  the  transition  from  the  system  of  concentration 
to  that  of  specialization  is  found  in  the  average  pupil  at  the 
close  of  the  grammar-school  period  —  that  specialization 
should  be  deferred  to  the  high  school.  Now,  although  a 
few  enthusiasts  seem  to  have  convinced  themselves  that 
this  is  true,  their  position  is  not  supported  by  actual  con- 
ditions. Will  any  practical  teacher  deny  that  children 
ought  to  begin  the  study  of  the  facts  of  arithmetic,  history, 
geometry,  algebra,  botany,  and  physics  in  their  logical 
relations  somewhere  during  the  grammar-school  course.? 
If  not,  we  find  a  point  in  the  grammar  school  where  the 
same  principle  begins  to  obtain  which  has  universal  sway  in 
the  high  school  —  where  begins  the  systematic  study  of 
facts  or  phases  of  the  universe  in  their  logical  relations, 
the  study  of  subjects.  If,  therefore,  it  is  wise  to  have  a 
teacher  of  a  single  subject  or  a  group  of  closely  related 
subjects  in  the  high  school,  it  is  difficult  to  see  why  it 
would  not  be  equally  wise  to  have  them  in  all  the  grades 
of  the  grammar  school  except  those  in  which  the  work  is 
done  in  accordance  with  the  principle  of  concentration. 

When  the  Study  of  Facts  in  their  Logical  Relations  should 
Begin. —  Dr.  Maxwell  thinks  that  the  period  when  the 
study  of  facts  in  their  logical  relations  should  begin*  is 
reached    by   the  average   child   about   the   twelfth   year. 


1236  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

"  From  the  sixth  year  to  about  the  tenth  or  eleventh,"  he 
says,  *'  the  child  is  occupied  in  acquiring  the  arts  necessary 
to  the  attainment  of  knowledge  —  reading,  writing,  and 
the  elements  of  number —  and  in  obtaining  through  obser- 
vation of  natural  objects"  (and,  I  should  add,  through  the 
study  of  history,  in  the  form  of  biography,  and  of  simple 
literature)  **  that  experience  of  the  world  "  (and  of  man) 
''  which  is  necessary  to  the  interpretation  of  more  complex 
and  general  notions.  During  this  period  the  knowledge 
acquired  is  necessarily  loose  and  unsystematic,"  and  the 
interest  of  the  child  grows  out  of  the  external,  mechanical 
relations  of  the  facts  he  studies  rather  than  out  of  their 
inner,  logical  relations,  and  for  that  reason  the  principle  of 
concentration  should  obtain.  '*  About  the  beginning  of  the 
twelfth  year,  however,  comes  the  time  when  it  is  necessary 
to  systematize  the  facts  learned.  .  .  .  This  is  the  point  at 
which  specialization  in  teaching  [and  in  study]  should  be- 
gin. The  retardation  of  progress  in  public-school  work  is 
chiefly  caused  by  this  one  thing  —  that  specialization  in 
the  work  of  teaching  is  delayed  until  the  child's  fifteenth 
or  sixteenth  year  instead  of  beginning  at  the  eleventh  or 
twelfth."  ^ 

Advantages  of  Specialization  in  Teaching — Specializa- 
tion in  the  teaching  of  the  upper  grades  of  the  grammar 
school  would  make  it  much  easier  to  keep  the  work  of  a 
pupil  adjusted  to  his  needs  and  capacities  in  the  way 
which  was  insisted  on  in  the  preceding  chapter.  If  each 
of  the  staple  subjects  of  instruction  in  the  last  three  or 
four  years  of  the  grammar  school  were  taught  by  a  single 
teacher,  it  would  be  easy  for  an  intelligent  teacher  to  as- 

1  Educational  Review,  Vol.  III.  pp.  481,  482. 


DEPARTMENTAL   INSTRUCTION.  237 

certain  when  a  bright  pupil  could  with  advantage  to  him- 
self undertake  the  work  of  a  higher  grade.  By  means  of 
reviews  which  would  not  be  disadvantageous  to  the  rest  of 
the  class  she  could  make  him  acquainted  with  important 
matters  which  the  class  had  gone  over  before  he  entered 
it.  She  would  have  perfect  knowledge  of  the  work  of  both 
classes,  since  both  of  them  would  have  done  it  under  her 
direction ;  she  would  therefore  be  ideally  qualified  to  sup- 
plement the  pupil's  knowledge  in  the  higher  class  in  those 
particulars  in  which  this  might  be  desirable.  In  a  word, 
specialization  in  teaching  would  facilitate  in  two  ways  that 
promotion  of  the  pupil  which  his  interests  demand :  first, 
when  the  class  from  which  and  the  one  to  which  he  might 
be  promoted  were  taught  by  the  same  teacher,  she  would 
be  in  the  best  possible  position  to  determine  when  such 
promotion  was  desirable ;  secondly,  knowing  precisely  what 
ground  the  higher  class  had  traversed  before  he  entered  it, 
she  would  be  able  to  meet  his  needs  in  the  most  intelligent 
way  by  classroom  recapitulations  and  by  suggestions  as  to 
outside  reading. 

Objections  to  the  Existing  System.  —  The  existing  sys- 
tem is  not  only  unfavorable  to  a  proper  method  of  promo- 
tion in  these  particulars  ;  it  not  only  makes  it  impossible 
for  the  class  teacher  to  have  that  knowledge  of  a  pupil's 
capacity  to  do  the  work  of  a  higher  grade  which  a  depart- 
mental teacher  may  have,  and  impossible  for  the  pupil 
who  is  promoted  before  his  class  to  have  the  work  of  the 
higher  class  properly  adjusted  to  his  needs :  it  interposes  a 
powerful  obstacle  to  a  wise  system  of  promotion  in  another 
way.  To  teach  bright,  eager,  enthusiastic  boys  and  girls 
is  a  real  pleasure  to  the  genuine  teacher.     Would  it  be  a 


238     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

matter  of  wonder  if,  without  admitting  it  to  herself,  she 
should  be  unwilling  to  lose  this  pleasure  —  if  she  should 
unconsciously  overemphasize  the  importance  of  the  work 
yet  to  be  done  when  promotion  of  her  best  pupils  to  a 
higher  class  meant  promotion  to  another  teacher?  And 
it  is  worth  while  to  notice  that  this  motive  would  tend  to 
operate  most  strongly  with  the  best  teachers  —  with  the 
very  class  of  teachers  who  under  the  departmental  system 
would  most  earnestly  desire  to  have  their  pupils  so  pro- 
moted as  to  keep  them  doing  the  most  helpful  work. 

The  Existing  System  Requires  Teachers  to  Teach  Subjects 
in  Which  They  are  not  Interested. —  Another  argument  in 
favor  of  the  proposed  system  is  that  the  traditional  system 
requires  the  teacher  to  teach  subjects  for  which  she  has 
little  taste  or  aptitude  and  of  which  her  knowledge  is  very 
superficial.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  a  teacher  to  have  a 
genuine  interest  in  the  subjects  pertaining  to  nature,  or 
in  those  that  pertain  to  man,  but  it  is  only  the  teacher 
with  encyclopaedic  knowledge  and  of  varied  talents  who 
has  a  real  interest  in  both  of  these  great  subdivisions  of 
human  knowledge.  Now  it  is  a  great  misfortune  for  chil- 
dren to  be  obliged  to  study  a  subject  under  a  teacher  who 
does  not  care  for  it.  For  apathy,  like  interest,  is  contagious, 
and  it  is  almost  impossible  for  even  bright  pupils  to  develop 
interest  in  a  subject  in  which  the  teacher  lacks  interest. 

Moreover,  a  lack  of  interest  implies  superficial  knowledge. 
The  teacher  who  is  not  interested  in  history,  for  example, 
does  not  see  the  facts  of  the  subject  in  their  logical  relations, 
does  not  see  them  in  their  relation  to  the  life  of  the 
individual,  the  nation,  and  the  race.  They  are,  for  her, 
dead,  meaningless  facts  —  facts  that  are  "going  nowhere 


DEPARTMENTAL  INSTRUCTION. 


n9 


for  nothing."  She  teaches  them  because  she  is  required  to, 
and  the  pupil  learns  them  for  the  same  reason.  Teacher 
and  pupil  alike  are  heartily  glad  when  they  have  finished 
the  subject,  only  "finishing"  it  means  for  the  former 
getting  round  to  the  point  where  she  takes  up  the  same 
monotonous  "grind''  again,  and  for  the  latter,  the  point 
where  he  is  to  take  up  similar  "  grinds  "  under  the  same  kind 
of  teacher.  To  suppose  that  work  done  under  such  con- 
ditions can  be  genuinely  educative,  that  it  can  illuminate 
the  mind,  quicken  the  emotions,  ennoble  the  ideals  of  the 
student,  is  absurd.  There  are  two  things  which  in  the 
majority  of  cases  such  work  may  be  counted  on  to  accom- 
plish :  add  to  the  burden  of  meaningless  facts  which  the 
pupil's  memory  is  expected  to  carry,  and  intensify  his 
longing  for  the  time  when  he  shall  have  done  with  school. 
The  specialization  of  teaching  in  the  higher  grades  of  the 
grammar  school  is  urged,  then,  for  the  following  reasons  : 

1.  It  renders  possible  that  enrichment  of  the  course  of 
study  in  the  higher  grades  of  the  grammar  school  requisite 
to  make  the  work  there  genuinely  educative. 

2.  It  facilitates  that  promotion  of  a  pupil  which  is  made 
to  depend  primarily  on  his  knowledge  and  capacity  instead 
of  on  the  calendar. 

3.  It  facilitates  the  plan  by  which  teachers  are  required 
to  teach  only  those  subjects  for  which  they  have  a  decided 
bent  and  of  which  they  have  special  knowledge. 

4.  It  enables  the  teacher  to  make  specific  and  careful 
preparation  for  each  day's  work,  so  that  her  own  mind  may 
be  constantly  growing  and  her  own  interest  in  her  subject 
constantly  deepening. 


240  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 


QUESTIONS   ON  THE  TEXT. 

1.  What  is  meant  by  the  title  of  this  chapter? 

2.  Show  that  the  same  argument  which  proves  that  specialists 
are  desirable  in  the  high  school  may  be  used  to  show  that  they  are 
desirable  in  the  upper  grades  of  the  grammar  school. 

3.  Why  are  specialists  not  needed  all  through  the  grades  ? 

4.  What  i^  meant  by  '^the  psychological  epoch"  which  dates 
the  transition  from  the  system  of  concentration  to  that  of  special- 
ization ? 

5.  Explain  and  illustrate  what  is  meant  by  the  study  of  facts  in 
their  logical  relations. 

6.  Enumerate  the  advantages  of  specialization  in  teaching. 

7.  Specify  the  objections  to  the  existing  system. 


SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  Do  you  accept  the  conclusions  of  this  chapter? 

2.  Are  there  any  obstacles  in  the  way  of  introducing  departmental 
instruction  in  the  grammar-schools  of  your  town  ? 

3.  What  effect  would  departmental  instruction  in  the  grammar- 
school  have  on  the  training  needed  by  teachers? 

4.  Is  that  fact  an  argument  for,  or  against,  the  proposed  change? 

5.  In  German,  French,  and   English  schools  of  a  corresponding 
grade  is  the  instruction  given  by  specialists? 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   HISTORY. 

Educational  Values  and  Methods. — The  preceding  chapter 
incidentally  discussed  the  methods  that  should  be  em- 
ployed in  teaching  various  subjects.  But  in  order  that  our 
knowledge  of  method  may  bear  its  proper  fruit  we  ought 
to  have  definite  ideas  of  the  sort  of  benefits  which  the 
study  of  a  subject  may  be  expected  to  confer.  To  know 
no  more  of  the  educational  value  of  history,  literature,  arith- 
metic, grammar,  geography,  and  so  on,  than  that  they  tend 
to  "develop  the  mind"  is  to  know  little  to  the  point. 
As  the  doctor  needs  to  ascertain  the  precise  effect  the 
various  drugs  may  be  expected  to  have  on  the  body,  so  we 
need  to  determine  the  precise  effect  the  study  of  different 
subjects  will  have  on  the  mind.  We  begin  the  discussion  by 
attempting  to  determine  the  educational  value  of  history. 

History  (i)  Increases  One's  Knowledge  of  Himself  and  His 
Fellows.  —  Among  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  the 
study  of  history  may  be  mentioned  the  enlargement  of 
one's  knowledge  of  himself  and  of  human  nature.  As  a 
child  becomes  conscious  of  other  people  through  becoming 
conscious  of  himself,  so  he  is  able  to  explain  the  actions  of 
others  only  in  so  far  as  he  can  refer  them  to  motives  such 
as  he  has  himself  experienced.  And  this  is  as  true  of  the 
men  and  women  whom  he  comes  to  know  in  history  as  it 
is  of  those  whom  he  meets  in  every-day  life.     What  made 

241 


^4^  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

the  Puritans  leave  their  homes  to  brave  the  dangers  of  the 
sea  and  an  unknown  country  ?  What  made  men  who 
cared  so  much  for  religious  freedom  so  willing  to  deprive 
others  of  it  ?  These  are  questions  relating  to  human 
nature,  and  if  we  are  able  to  answer  them,  it  is  because  we 
find  something  in  ourselves  which  enables  us  to  see  that 
under  similar  circumstances  we  might  have  done  the  same 
thing.  In  like  manner  we  should  never  be  able  to  under- 
stand the  civilization  of  China,  its  superstitious  reverence 
for  the  past,  its  contemptuous  rejection  of  everything  that 
would  imply  a  doubt  of  the  perfect  wisdom  of  antiquity, 
until  we  had  made  a  study  of  our  own  lives  and  formed 
some  idea  of  the  influence  which  tradition  exerts  upon  us. 
It  may  be  said,  with  Froude,  that  **in  history  the  outward 
fact  is  all  that  we  can  know,  and  that  insight  into  the 
heart  is  impossible.  ...  It  often  is  so.  But  when  it  is  so 
no  true  history  is  possible."  ^  True  history  is  the  outward 
fact  and  the  motive  that  lay  behind  it. 

The  intelligent  study  of  history,  then,  is  a  constant  study 
of  human  nature,  and  the  intelligent  study  of  human  nature 
is  a  persistent  study  of  one's  self. 

(2)  Develops  Sympathy  and  Charity.  —  Such  a  study 
of  history  tends  to  develop  the  capacity  for  intelligent 
sympathy  and  charity.  It  is  worth  a  boy's  while  to 
learn  that  although  Hamilton  and  Jefferson  disliked  each 
other  intensely,  each  was  devoted  with  his  whole  heart 
and  soul  to  the  well-being  of  the  country,  which  he  thought 
the  policy  of  the  other  would  ruin.  It  is  worth  his  while 
to  know  that  each  of  the  two  great  generals  of  the  Civil 
War  was  entirely  clear  that   he  was  doing  his  duty,  al- 

*  Educational  Review,  Vol.  V.  p.  182. 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   HISTORY.         243 

though  one  was  fighting  to  preserve  the  Union  and  the 
other  to  destroy  it.  Such  things  are  worth  his  knowing 
not  only  because  they  afford  opportunity  for  the  exercise 
of  that  '* theorizing  activity"  in  which  we  have  found  one 
of  the  ends  of  life,  but  because  they  help  him  to  a  point  of 
view  from  which  he  may  look  upon  the  lives  of  the  men 
and  women  about  him  with  sympathetic  eyes,  and  perhaps 
in  after-years  be  able  to  realize  that  a  man  may  oppose 
him  with  passionate  intensity  and  nevertheless  be  as  honest 
as  himself. 

(3)  Makes  us  Realize  that  Nations,  like  Individuals, 
Must  Act  in  Accordance  with  Moral  Law.  —  It  may  be  said 
that  such  teaching  tends  to  develop  that  invertebrate, 
gelatinous  sentimentalism  which  leads  silly  people  to  make 
a  hero  of  any  man  accused  of  crime.  But  if  history  is 
properly  taught  it  will  furnish  an  effective  antidote  against 
any  such  tendency.  No  other  subject  affords  such  splendid 
opportunities  for  showing  that  not  what  we  think  to  be 
true  but  what  really  is  true  is  the  important  matter.  He 
would  be  a  narrow  and  unsympathetic  student  who  did  not 
believe  in  Calhoun's  perfect  sincerity.  But  the  great  Nul- 
lifier's  honesty  could  not  change  the  character  of  the  moral 
laws  by  which  this  world  is  governed.  Slavery  is  wrong. 
A  country  that  permits  it  permits  a  violation  of  moral  law, 
collides  with  one  of  the  fundamental  realities  of  the  world. 
Just  as  two  trains  cannot  come  into  collision  without  dis- 
aster, so  a  man  or  a  nation  cannot  violate  a  moral  law  with 
impunity.  To  say  that  all  you  have  to  do  is  to  think  you 
are  right,  that  your  honesty  of  conviction  will  save  you 
from  any  unpleasant  consequences,  would  be  quite  as 
absurd  as  for  an  engineer  to  say  that  if  he  only  thinks  the 


244  ^   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

track  is  clear,  a  collision,  if  it  occurs,  will  not  hurt  anybody. 
Calhoun  was  sincere.  But  his  sincerity  did  not  prevent 
the  Civil  War  —  that  tremendous  result  of  the  collision 
of  the  American  people  with  one  of  the  abiding  realities  of 
the  world.  What  is  it  to  live  wisely  but  to  take  account 
of  the  facts,  of  the  realities  in  the  midst  of  which  we  live  ? 
And  where  else  can  we  learn  so  impressively  as  from  the 
study  of  history  that  there  are  realities  not  perceptible  by 
the  senses,  and  that  the  man  or  the  nation  that  disregards 
them  acts  the  part  of  a  fool  ? 

(4)  Prepares  for  Citizenship.  —  The  study  of  history 
ought  also  to  be  a  preparation  for  the  duties  of  citizenship. 
Who  is  the  good  citizen  ?  He  is  the  man  who  has  a  cer- 
tain kind  of  knowledge,  a  certain  kind  of  reasoning  power, 
and  a  certain  effective  ideal  of  civic  duty. 

(a)  By  the  Knowledge  It  Imparts.  —  It  would  be  out  of 
the  question  to  enumerate  the  various  kinds  of  knowledge 
which  a  good  citizen  ought  to  possess.  Suffice  it 
here  to  point  out  some  of  the  more  obvious  lessons  we 
ought  to  learn  from  the  study  of  history,  ignorance  of 
which  would  make  it  impossible  for  us  to  act  the  part  of 
grateful  American  citizens.  If  we  do  not  know  that 
national  greatness  is  not  measured  by  extent  of  territory 
or  largeness  of  wealth,  if  we  have  not  learned  that  a 
splendid  material  civilization  may  coexist  with  deteriorat- 
ing national  character,  if  we  do  not  see  that  the  one  thing 
which  makes  a  nation  respectable  is  the  character  of  the 
men  and  women  who  comprise  it,  and  that  its  sole  title  to 
greatness  is  derived  from  the  qualities  of  mind  and  heart 
of  its  citizens,  we  cannot  help  throwing  our  influence  on 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OF   HISTORY. 


245 


the  wrong  side  in  important  crises.  And  if  we  do  not 
understand  the  ideas  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  our 
national  history  —  that  America  has  stood  for  equality 
before  the  law,  and  that  any  discrimination  between  man 
and  man  is  disloyalty  to  our  national  ideals,  —  if  we  do  not 
clearly  perceive  that  a  policy  of  colonization  for  mere 
aggrandizement  is  a  Europeanization  of  our  government, 
an  obliteration  of  all  that  distinguishes  it  from  the  govern- 
ments of  the  Old  World,  we  are  in  danger  of  proving  un- 
faithful to  our  country.  That  we  should  have  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  our  Constitution,  that  we  should  know 
what  are  the  duties  of  our  officials,  that  we  should  under- 
stand that  the  government  of  the  city,  the  State,  or  the 
nation  is  a  wonderfully  complex  organization  and  that  it 
should  be  conducted  on  business  principles,  that  the  mayor, 
governor,  or  president  who  appoints  to  office  for  any  reason 
which  would  not  appeal  to  the  owner  of  a  private  enterprise 
is  unfaithful  to  his  trust,  are  matters  too  evident  to  make 
extended  comment  necessary.  But  the  frequent  corruption 
of  our  city  and  State  governments,  the  passage  of  laws 
by  our  national  legislature  to  promote  the  interests  of  a 
class  or  section  rather  than  those  of  the  whole  people,  are 
eloquent  testimony  to  the  fact  that  we  have  not  learned 
these  things  with  sufficient  clearness. 

(b)   By  Developing  a  Certain  Kind  of  Reasoning  Power. 

—  The  good  citizen  needs  also  a  certain  kind  of  reasoning 
power.  Unless  a  man  has  the  sort  of  training  that  enables 
him  to  trace  national  conditions  to  their  origin  he  is  sure 
to  be  imposed  upon  by  the  fallacy  which  logicians  call 
"false  cause."  A  countless  multitude  of  facts  precede 
every  event.     To  assume  that  any  one  of  these  is  its  real 


246  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

cause,  without  considering  its  natural  fitness  to  produce 
the  effect,  is  to  be  guilty  of  that  fallacy.  The  man  who 
fails  to  see  that  the  mere  fact  that  so  complex  a  thing  as 
national  prosperity  was  preceded  by  a  certain  event  hardly 
warrants  the  inference  that  the  particular  antecedent  was 
its  cause,  that  man  becomes  the  catspaw  of  the  designing 
party  newspaper  and  the  professional  politician.  To  be 
able  to  vote  intelligently  we  must  be  able  to  detect  the  fal- 
lacies of  those  who  have  a  pecuniary  interest  in  deceiving 
us,  and  such  ability  will  grow  only  through  exercising  the 
sort  of  reason  which  the  intelligent  teaching  of  history 
cultivates.  For  in  reasoning  about  historical  subjects  we 
are  dealing  with  matters  of  the  same  sort  that  confront 
us  in  current  political  questions ;  because,  as  Freeman 
so  aptly  remarked,  "  politics  is  present  history,  and  his- 
tory is  past  politics.*' 

(c)  By  Fostering  a  High  Civic  Ideal —  A  good  citizen 
needs,  also,  a  certain  civic  ideal.  A  very  suggestive  ques- 
tion was  raised  in  a  conversation  that  occurred  between  a 
banker  and  one  of  his  friends  during  the  presidential 
campaign  of  1896.  "We  condemn  in  unmeasured  terms,** 
said  the  banker,  "the  man  who  sells  his  vote.  But  you 
and  I  intend  at  the  coming  election  to  vote  the  ticket  that 
will  put  most  money  into  our  pockets.  Since  that  is  the 
motive  which  actuates  the  voter  who  accepts  a  bribe,  what 
is  the  difference  between  his  conduct  and  ours  ?  **  I  do 
not  wish  to  insinuate  that  the  act  of  a  man  who  casts  his 
vote  solely  with  reference  to  his  own  interests  is  on  a  par 
with  that  of  the  man  who  sells  his  vote.  But  it  ought  to 
be  evident  without  much  discussion  that  if  a  voter  feels 
that  he  has  a  right  to  cast  his  vote  in  brutal  disregard  of 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   VALUE   OF   HISTORY.         247 

the  interests  of  other  people,  he  can  hardly  be  expected 
to  be  conscious  of  the  clear  demarcation  between  that  sort 
of  right  and  the  right  to  use  any  power  he  possesses  with 
equal  indifference  to  the  pubUc  good.  If  a  sharer  in  the 
profits  of  a  trust  has  the  right  to  vote  for  a  candidate 
whose  sole  recommendation  is  that  he  may  be  depended 
upon  to  act  in  the  interest  of  corporations,  why  has  the 
former  not  a  right  to  bribe  other  voters  or  to  corrupt 
members  of  Congress  in  order  to  further  his  private  ends  ? 
Why  may  he  not  debauch  the  voters  of  an  entire  State  in 
order  to  gain  office  ? 

The  Theory  of  the  Sophists The  student  of  the  his- 
tory of  civilization  has  frequent  occasion  to  note  that 
society  rarely  casts  off  an  error  without  giving  up  its  hold 
on  some  connected  truth.  Up  to  the  time  of  the  Sophists, 
who  began  to  teach  in  Greece  about  450  B.C.,  the  universal 
theory  was  that  the  individual  was  entirely  subordinate 
to  the  state ;  that  he  belonged  to  it  body  and  soul ;  that 
it  was  the  source  of  all  his  duties  and  the  measure  of  all 
his  obligations.  The  Sophists  called  this  theory  in  ques- 
tion. They  saw  that  the  individual,  not  the  state,  was  the 
measure  of  all  things.  But  from  this  truth  it  was  but  a 
step  to  the  fallacy  that  the  wisest  life  we  can  live  is  that 
which  disregards  the  interests  of  society.  To  the  errone- 
ous theory  that  the  state  is  everything  and  the  individual 
nothing  they  opposed  one  more  fatally  erroneous  —  that 
the  individual  is  everything  and  society  nothing.  The 
old  theory  had  held  that  the  individual  could  make  no 
claims  upon  the  state,  that  he  had  no  rights  before  it ; 
they  maintained  that  society  had  no  claims  upon  the 
individual,  that  he  should  take  no  account  of  it  except  to 


248     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

promote  his  own  material  interests.  In  a  word,  in  getting 
rid  of  the  old  error  they  lost  their  grip  on  the  fundamental 
truth  that  he  only  is  mindful  of  his  own  highest  good  who 
has  regard  for  the  interests  of  others. 

Its  American  Counterpart.  —  Now  classification  is  not 
proof ;  and  when  it  is  maintained  that  the  notion  that  a 
man  may  vote  to  put  money  into  his  pocket  whether  it  be 
for  the  public  good  or  not  is  identical  with  the  theory  ot 
the  Sophists,  it  is  not  asserted  that  anything  is  proved 
thereby.  But  either  morality  is  the  name,  not  of  a  funda- 
mental reality  which  a  wise  man  must  take  account  of, 
but  of  the  factitious  code  which  he  should  observe  in 
seeking  his  material  interests  so  far  as  convenient,  or  the 
Sophists,  both  Greek  and  American,  are  wrong.  Either 
the  difference  between  a  moral  and  an  immoral  man  is 
like  that  between  a  prize-fighter  and  an  ordinary  rough- 
and-tumble  fighter,  in  that  the  latter  seeks  to  inflict  all 
the  injury  he  can  upon  his  opponent,  while  the  former  is 
hampered  by  the  rules  of  the  '*  ring,"  or  else  there  is  such 
a  thing  as  civic  duty.  Either  the  Golden  Rule  is  obso- 
lete, a  canon  which  the  world  has  outgrown,  or  its  binding 
force  holds  when  a  man  casts  his  vote.  To  disregard  it 
is  to  disintegrate  society  into  a  host  of  self-seeking  an- 
archistic individuals,  when  each  man's  hand  will  be  against 
every  man,  and  every  man's  hand  against  him.  It  is  only 
by  adherence  to  the  Golden  Rule  that  we  can  bind  society 
into  a  living  organic  whole  each  member  of  which  shall 
seek  his  own  good  only  to  that  degree  that  he  intelligently 
subordinates  his  own  material  good  to  the  welfare  of 
society. 

A  teacher  who  has  a  keen  perception  of  this  truth  — 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   VALUE   OF   HISTORY.         249 

and  only  one  who  has  can  be  of  service  to  her  pupils  in 
this  direction  —  will  find  no  other  of  the  school  subjects  so 
helpful  as  history  to  inculcate  it.  The  lessons  for  the  intel- 
lect are  to  be  found  here :  the  connection  between  the 
national  well-being  and  the  subordination  of  the  material 
welfare  of  the  individual  to  the  public  good.  The  persua- 
sive appeal  to  the  emotions  may  be  made  here  —  the  pres- 
entation of  the  characters  of  those  who  owe  their  place 
in  history  to  their  readiness  to  forego  the  gratification  of 
their  individual  desires  in  the  interest  of  the  public  good. 

These,  then,  are  the  ways  in  which  the  study  of  history 
contributes  to  the  purposes  of  education  :  it  promotes  the 
study  of  human  nature,  cultivates  sympathy  and  charity, 
deepens  the  sense  of  the  reality  of  moral  laws,  and  prepares 
for  the  duties  of  citizenship  by  imparting  the  knowledge, 
developing  the  kind  of  reasoning  power,  and  fostering  the 
ideals  without  which  good  citizenship  is  impossible. 

Children  May  Study  History  with  Profit.  —  It  may  be 

urged  that  such  benefits  presuppose  that  the  student  brings 
to  the  consideration  of  history  the  maturity  of  the  high 
school  or  the  college.  To  this  objection  two  replies  may 
be  made.  In  the  first  place,  the  six-year-old  just  entering 
school  has  already  been  a  student  of  human  nature  for 
several  years.  Without  help  from  any  one  he  has  discov- 
ered the  existence  of  other  people  and  made  some  progress 
in  the  study  of  individuals.  The  intelligent  teacher  of 
history  will  only  build  on  the  foundation  the  child  has 
already  laid.  She  will  help  him  continue  his  study  of 
human  nature  by  telling  him  about  people  whom  he  has 
not  seen  ;  she  will  broaden  his  sympathies  by  making  him 
acquainted  with  the  people  of  other  lands  and  times. 


2j;0     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

Moreover,  if  this  were  not  true,  the  facts  would  still 
oblige  us  to  maintain  that  if  history  should  be  studied  at 
all,  it  is  because  of  the  benefits  we  have  enumerated.  If 
the  boy  in  the  elementary  school  cannot  obtain  these  bene- 
fits, he  cannot  obtain  any  benefit  whatever. 

We  have  got  in  the  habit  of  talking  about  elementary, 
high-school,  and  college  education,  as  though  the  things 
were  as  different  as  their  names,  and  this  has  given  cur- 
rency to  the  notion  that  the  educational  value  of  a  subject 
depends  on  the  grade  of  the  school  in  which  it  is  taught. 
We  need  to  remember  that  in  every  stage  of  education 
it  is  a  growing  mind  with  which  we  have  to  do,  and  that 
the  educational  value  of  our  efforts  consists  in  the  extent 
to  which  we  have  caused  that  mind  to  exercise  its  capacities 
to  know,  feel,  and  will.  Now  an  elementary  pupil  either  can 
or  cannot  be  made  to  understand  some  of  the  simpler  facts 
of  biography  and  history ;  if  he  can,  he  may  be  taught 
some  of  the  simpler  facts  of  human  nature.  He  cither 
can  or  cannot  understand  some  of  the  simpler  explanations 
of  history ;  if  he  can,  he  is  capable  of  being  trained  in  the 
kind  of  reasoning  that  the  correct  explanation  of  current 
political  conditions  requires.  He  either  can  or  cannot  be 
made  to  see  the  beauty  of  the  lives  of  some  of  the  noble 
men  and  women  of  the  world  ;  if  he  can,  it  is  possible  that 
his  own  ideals  may  be  changed  through  his  study  of 
history. 

QUESTIONS  ON   THE  TEXT. 

1.  What  is  meant  by  educational  value  ? 

2.  What  is  the  comparison  between  medicine  and  studies  intended 
to  show  ? 

3.  In  what  way  does  history  increase  one's  knowledge  of  himself 
and  his  fellows  ? 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   HISTORY.         25 1 

4.  What  does  Froude  mean  by  the  outward  fact  ? 

5.  How  does  history  tend  to  develop  sympathy  and  charity? 

6.  In  what  way  does  it  help  us  to  realize  that  nations,  like  indi- 
viduals, must  obey  moral  laws? 

7.  What  are  the  qualifications  of  a  good  citizen  ? 

8.  Illustrate  the  sort  of  knowledge  needed  for  citizenship. 

9.  What  kind  of  reasoning  power  must  a  good  citizen  possess, 
and  how  can  he  acquire  it? 

10.  What  sort  of  ideal  must  a  good  citizen  have  ? 

11.  What  is  the  story  of  the  campaign  of  1896  intended  to  show? 

12.  What  theory  as  to  the  relation  of  the  individual  to  society  pre- 
vailed up  to  the  time  of  the  Sophists  ? 

13.  What  was  their  theory? 

14.  What  is  its  American  counterpart? 

15.  Show  that  children  may  study  history  with  profit. 


SUGGESTIVE    QUESTIONS. 

1.  Why  is  it  so  hard  for  most  people  to  believe  that  the  only  reali- 
ties are  material  ? 

2.  How  may  history  help  to  show  that  there  are  other  realities? 

3.  Show  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  general  cultivation  of 
observation,  memory,  imagination,  or  reasoning. 

4.  Who  were  the  Sophists? 

5.  What  bearing  do  our  conclusions  as  to  plastic  imitation  have 
on  the  teaching  of  high  civic  ideals  ? 

6.  What  should  be  the  characteristics  of  the  teacher  who  imparts 
such  ideals,  and  why  are  they  essential  ? 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   SPELLING,  LANGUAGE 
LESSONS,  AND   GRAMMAR. 

Spelling  Has  Little  Educational  Value.  —  As  to  the  edu- 
cational value  of  spelling  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  it  has 
little.  The  good  speller  has  no  clearer  insight  into  the 
laws  of  nature  or  of  mind  than  the  poor  speller,  responds 
no  more  readily  to  any  phase  of  beauty  or  call  of  duty. 
The  sole  distinction  between  them  consists  in  the  differ- 
ence of  a  certain  kind  of  memory,  the  cultivation  of  which 
has  little  value  for  any  other  purpose. 

The  Uses  of  Forgotten  Knowledge.  —  Sir  Joshua  Fitch 
has  an  interesting  paragraph  on  the  uses  of  forgotten 
knowledge.  "It  would  not  be  right  to  conclude,"  he  says, 
"that  all  knowledge  which  is  forgotten  has  failed  to  serve 
a  useful  purpose.  It  may  be  forgotten  in  the  form  in 
which  it  has  been  received,  but  it  may  reappear  in  another. 
...  It  is  true  that  what  is  consciously  got  up  for  some 
temporary  purpose  drops  out  of  the  ground  and  leaves  no 
trace.  Like  Jonah's  gourd,  it  comes  up  in  a  night  and 
perishes  in  a  night.  It  is  not  of  this  I  speak.  But  all 
knowledge  once  honestly  acquired  and  made  a  subject  of 
thought  germinates,  even  though  in  time  it  becomes  un- 
recognizable, and  seems  to  disappear  altogether.  It  has 
fulfilled  its  purpose,  has  deepened  a  conviction,  has  formed 
the  legitimate  ground  for  some  conclusion  on  which  in 

J52 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OP  SPELLING. 


^S3 


turn  something  else  has  been  built;  and  it  gives  to  the 
learner  a  sense  of  freedom  and  of  elbow-room  when  in 
after-life  he  is  dealing  with  it  and  cognate  subjects,  such 
as  he  could  not  possibly  experience  if  the  subject  were 
wholly  new  to  him.  Rules  serve  their  purpose  if  they 
form  our  habits  of  speech  or  of  action,  even  though  these 
habits  are  not  consciously  obedient  to  the  rules,  and 
although  the  rules  themselves  could  not  be  restated  in  an 
explicit  form.  A  demonstration  in  mathematics  has  done 
its  work  if,  for  the  time,  it  gave  an  insight  into  the  true 
method  of  reasoning,  even  though  in  later  life  we  utterly 
fail  to  remember  the  theorem  or  the  proof.  So  the  exact 
character  of  a  set  of  experimental  illustrations  in  physics 
may  be  entirely  forgotten  ;  yet  if  the  truth  they  illustrated 
was  by  their  help  fastened  on  the  mind,  and  has  subse- 
quently been  seen  in  wider  and  more  varied  application,  we 
have  no  right  to  say  that  the  original  effort  has  been 
wasted.  .  .  .  Here,  then,  is  one  of  the  tests  of  our  school- 
lessons.  Grant  that  as  school-lessons  they  will  be  for- 
gotten. Let  us  reconcile  ourselves  to  this  as  inevitable, 
and  ask  in  relation  to  everything  which  we  teach  :  Is  it 
germinating  and  fruit-bearing  or  not  ?  When  the  husk 
and  shell  shall  have  decayed,  will  there  be  anything  left  ? 
If  so,  what  ?  Will  this  bit  of  knowledge  drop  wholly  out 
of  the  memory  and  leave  no  trace .?  "  ^ 

An  application  of  this  test  will  make  it  evident  that 
spelling  as  such  has  no  educational  value.  When  the  spell- 
ing of  a  word  drops  out  of  the  memory,  it  leaves  no  trace 
behind.  No  conviction  has  been  deepened  on  account  of 
it,  no  sense  of  freedom  has  resulted  from  it.  By  a  dead 
heave  of  mechanical  memory  the  combination  of  letters 

1  Fitch,  Lectures  on  Teaching,  p.  145. 


1254  ^  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

which  composed  the  word  was  fixed  in  the  mind,  and  when 
it  dropped  out  the  mind  was  relieved  of  the  burden  of 
unintelligent  facts  which  it  is  obliged  to  carry  — and  that 
is  all.  The  stress,  therefore,  that  is  laid  upon  correct 
spelling  is  a  mere  fashion  and,  as  every  one  knows,  of 
comparatively  recent  adoption. 

Conventional  Value  of  Spelling.  —  But  no  one  supposes 
that  we  are  therefore  warranted  in  not  taking  the  trouble 
to  learn  to  spell  properly.  Society,  as  we  know,  imposes 
severe  penalties  upon  those  who  disregard  its  fashions,  and 
the  man  who  is  not  a  good  speller  is  assumed  to  be  an 
uneducated  person,  incapable  of  filling  a  position  that  de- 
mands training  and  intelligence. 

What  Words  Children  Should  Be  Taught  to  Spell.  —  But 
since  spelling  has  little  intrinsic  educational  value,  the  abil- 
ity to  spell  words  that  one  cannot  use  is  of  no  benefit.  We 
are  therefore  bound  to  prevent  our  pupils  from  wasting 
their  time  in  learning  to  spell  words  of  whose  meanings 
they  are  ignorant.  To  know  how  to  spell  words  which 
one  is  unable  to  use  can  only  serve  to  prepare  one  to  shine 
in  a  spelling-match,  and  life  is  too  short  to  make  it  expedi- 
ent to  indulge  in  such  ornamental  accomplishments. 

Conventional  and  Real  Value  of  the  Ability  to  Use  Good 
English.  —  That  capacity  to  speak  and  write  well  which 
language  lessons  aim  to  develop  has  a  greater  conventional 
value  even  than  spelling.  Incorrect,  slovenly  English  at 
once  stamps  its  user  not  only  as  uneducated,  but  as  ill-bred. 
But  to  this  conventional  value  the  ability  to  use  correct, 
clear,  forcible,  and  elegant  English  adds  a  high  degree  of 


LANGUAGE   LESSONS  — GRAMMAR.  255 

intrinsic  worth.  Whether  a  man  talks  to  give  pleasure,  or 
to  persuade,  or  to  convince,  the  probability  that  he  will 
accomplish  his  purpose  depends  in  part  on  his  capacity  for 
effective  speech.  Moreover,  the  ability  to  write  well  con- 
tributes appreciably  to  the  pleasure  and  profit  one  may 
get  from  reading. 

Language  Lessons  Should  Deepen  a  Child's  Interest  in 
His  Work.  —  It  may  be  worth  while  to  repeat  that  since 
language  lessons  should  grow  out  of  the  social  nature  of 
the  child,  they  ought  to  deepen  his  interest  in  the  school 
subjects  to  which  they  are  related.  Now  when  he  tells 
his  classmates,  for  example,  about  a  book  they  have  not 
read,  the  effort  to  make  it  clear  to  them  will  increase  his 
capacity  for  effective  speech  and,  at  the  same  time,  deepen 
his  own  interest  in  the  book.  This,  therefore,  is  another 
element  of  the  educational  value  of  language  lessons :  they 
ought  to  increase  the  interest  in  the  other  work  of  the  school. 

Grammar  (i)  Cultivates  the  Power  of  Discrimination. — 

The  study  of  grammar  is  primarily  a  study  of  the  functions 
of  words.  "  By  grammar  we  do  not  learn  to  speak,  no,  nor 
even  to  read  and  write,'*  says  Dr.  Earle,  "  but  we  learn  the 
relations  of  words  to  one  another  in  the  use  of  speech.  .  .  . 
The  subject-matter  of  grammar  is  .  .  .  the  relations  which 
words  bear  to  one  another  in  formed  sentences.'*  The 
study  of  grammar  tends,  therefore,  to  cultivate  in  a  high 
degree  the  power  of  discrimination.  Now  growth  in  intel- 
lectual power  in  one  of  its  phases  consists  in  the  develop- 
ment of  this  capacity.  The  mind  begins  its  career  in  this 
world  without  the  power  to  see  any  differences,  even  the 
most  obvious.     Every  step  in  its  progress  from  infancy  to 


2^6  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

maturity  is  marked  by  an  increase  in  its  power  of  discrimi- 
nation. A  growth  in  its  power  to  observe  means  a  ca- 
pacity to  see  differences  where  only  likenesses  were  seen 
before  ;  a  growth  in  its  capacity  to  think  means  a  power  to 
distinguish  thought  relations  that  previously  were  confused. 
A  study,  therefore,  that  is  largely  devoted  to  the  de- 
termination of  the  precise  meaning  of  words  has  great 
educational  value. 

(2)  Promotes  the  Scudy  of  the  Mind.  —  The  study  of 
grammar  may  also  be  made  to  promote  the  close  and  criti- 
cal study  of  the  mind.  It  is  not  the  physical  relations  of 
words  to  one  another  that  grammar  seeks  to  discover.  If 
it  were,  the  university  student  of  grammar  would  have  no 
advantage  over  a  three-year-old  child.  The  only  physical 
relations  into  which  words  can  enter  are  those  of  space, 
and  no  maturity  is  required  to  tell  which  words  come  first 
in  a  sentence  and  which  second,  which  words  are  adjacent 
to  one  another  and  which  are  separated  by  other  words. 
No ;  the  relations  of  words  with  which  grammar  is  con- 
cerned are  those  which  they  bear  to  one  another  as  expres- 
sive of  thoughts.  To  understand,  for  example,  the  relation 
of  bright  to  the  other  words  of  the  sentence,  "  A  bright 
boy  learns  quickly,"  is  to  know  that  when  we  are  thinking 
of  boy  in  general  we  have  in  mind  the  entire  class,  able, 
mediocre,  stupid,  idiotic,  and  that  bright  limits  it  in  a 
certain  way,  makes  a  sub-class  of  those  possessing  certain 
qualities.  Now  this  study  of  the  thought  relations  of 
words  often  requires  a  close  study  of  the  mind.  What,  for 
example,  is  the  force  of  the  conjunctions  in  the  sentence, 
"  Peas  and  beans  may  be  severed  from  the  ground  before 
they  be  quite  dry ;  but  they  must  not  be  put  into  sacks  or 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   GRAMMAR.        I^J 

barns  until  perfectly  dry  ;  for  tf  they  be,  they  will  molder  '*  ? 
If  we  say  that  and  joins  together /^^j  and  beanSy  we  have 
either  stated  an  irrelevant  truism,  or  we  have  left  the  mat- 
ter entirely  unexplained.  If  the  statement  means — as  it 
probably  does  in  the  mind  of  many  grammar-school  pupils 
—  that  two  printed  words  are  connected  by  a  third,  it  is  an 
irrelevant  truism.  The  object  of  the  study  of  grammar  is 
not  to  ascertain  the  physical  relations  of  physical  things. 
But  if  the  statement  is  intended  as  a  description  of  the  fact 
of  consciousness  which  and  expresses,  it  fails  to  accomplish 
its  purpose.  For  we  do  not  learn  anything  about  what 
takes  place  in  the  mind  when  we  are  told  that  and  con- 
nects peas  and  beans. 

Similar  criticism  applies  to  the  way  in  which  but  is  often 
disposed  of.  When  it  is  said  that  but  expresses  the  rela- 
tion of  the  first  to  the  second  member  of  the  sentence,  the 
question  which  must  be  answered  is.  What  kind  of  relation  > 
Not  to  raise  that  question  is  to  permit  the  pupil  to  content 
himself  with  knowing,  or  rather  feeling,  that  the  thought 
expressed  by  the  first  member  stands  in  some  indefinite  re- 
lation to  that  expressed  by  the  second  —  is  to  encourage 
just  that  hazy  sort  of  thinking  which  it  is  an  important 
object  of  education  to  put  an  end  to. 

(3)  Should  Illustrate  the  Difference  Between  Knowledge 
and  Opinion.  —  The  study  of  grammar  should  also  help  the 
pupil  to  realize  the  difference  between  what  he  knows  and 
what  he  merely  believes.  When  a  child  first  enters  school 
he  knows  very  little.  He  understands  that  such  and  such 
objects  are  called  trees,  but  he  does  not  know  precisely  in 
what  respects  such  objects  differ  from  all  others,  nor  in 
what  respects  they  agree.     If  he  is  confronted  with  a  big 


258     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

palm  and  is  asked  whether  it  is  a  tree,  he  cannot  tell.  He 
has  what  may  be  termed  a  feeling  as  to  what  a  tree  is,  but 
no  genuine  knowledge.  And  this  is  his  state  of  mind  with 
reference  to  all  the  objects  which  he  seems  to  himself  to 
know.  He  is  in  the  same  condition  in  which  the  whole 
world  was  up  to  the  time  of  Socrates.  Socrates  first  saw, 
historians  of  philosophy  tell  us,  the  difference  between 
knowledge  and  opinion,  and  thereby  marked  an  epoch  of 
the  first  importance  in  the  history  of  thought.  Now  the 
study  of  grammar  should  help  to  create  just  such  an  epoch 
in  the  history  of  the  pupil.  It  should  help  him  to  form 
logical  concepts  of  the  various  parts  of  speech,  and  thereby 
enable  him  to  realize  the  difference  between  a  logical  con- 
cept —  one  whose  content  is  clearly  and  definitely  marked 
off  from  everything  else  in  the  mind  —  and  a  psychological 
concept  —  a  state  of  mind  in  which  one  feels  the  resem- 
blances between  those  members  of  the  class  for  which  the 
concept  stands  without  definitely  knowing  what  those 
resemblances  are. 

These,  then,  it  is  submitted,  are  the  chief  elements  of 
the  educational  value  of  grammar :  it  cultivates  the  power 
of  discrimination,  promotes  the  study  of  the  mind,  and 
helps  to  make  clear  the  difference  between  knowledge  and 
opinion.  The  notion  that  it  contributes  materially  to  help 
the  student  to  speak  and  write  the  language  correctly  is 
so  generally  discredited  that  no  space  will  be  wasted  in 
discussing  it.  All  progressive  teachers  understand  that 
language  lessons  must  be  chiefly  relied  on  to  promote  cor- 
rectness in  the  use  of  language. 

At  What  Age  Should  Grammar  be  Studied?  —  To  what 
extent  may  the  pupils  of  the  elementary  school  derive  this 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OF   GRAMMAR. 


259 


kind  of  benefit  from  the  study  of  grammar  ?  The  present 
state  of  pedagogical  knowledge  does  not  permit  a  precise 
answer  to  this  question.  The  acts  of  discrimination  re- 
quired in  the  mastery  of  grammar  vary  between  those  that 
may  be  performed  by  the  average  ten-year-old  pupil  and 
those  that  would  tax  the  powers  of  a  college  freshman. 
Manifestly  this  applies  also  to  the  knowledge  of  the  mind 
which  an  intelligent  study  of  grammar  requires. 

There  are,  then,  phases  of  the  subject  easily  within  the 
grasp  of  the  pupils  of  the  elementary  school.  But  it  does 
not  follow  that  because  they  are,  grammar  should  be  macte 
a  part  of  the  elementary-school  course.  No  one  has  a 
right  to  form  a  definitive  opinion  on  that  point  until  he 
has  made  an  exact  comparison  of  the  precise  benefits  to 
be  derived  from  the  study  of  grammar  with  those  that 
might  be  derived  from  the  study  of  some  substituted  sub- 
ject. That  comparison  no  one  can  now  make  in  any 
exact  sense ;  it  is  safe  to  say  that  no  one  will  ever  be  able 
to  make  it.  We  shall  probably  always  be  obliged  to  con- 
tent ourselves  with  a  feeling  as  to  what  is  true  in  this 
direction  —  a  feeling  that  can  never  be  expressed  in  the 
terms  of  an  exact  science. 


QUESTIONS    ON    THE    TEXT. 

1.  Show  that  spelling  has  little  educational  value. 

2.  What  are  the  uses  of  forgotten  knowledge? 

3.  What  does  Fitch  mean  by  "  fruit-bearing  "  ? 

4.  What  is  meant  by  conventional  value  ? 

5.  What  words  should  children  be  taught  to  spell  ? 

6.  What  is  the  conventional  value  of  the  ability  to  use  good 
English  ? 

7.  How  does  grammar  cultivate  the  power  of  discrimination? 

8.  Illustrate  how  it  promotes  the  study  of  the  mind. 


!26o  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

9.  What  is  the  difference  between  a  logical  and  a  psychological 
concept  ? 

ID.  What  is  the  difference  between  opinion  and  knowledge,  and  in 
what  way  does  the  study  of  grammar  help  to  make  it  clear  ? 

II.  At  what  age  should  the  study  of  grammar  be  undertaken]? 


SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  Can  you  illustrate  from  your  own  experience  the  fact  that  you 
have  derived  benefit  from  learning  some  things  which  you  have 
entirely  forgotten? 

2.  Illustrate  the  fact  that  growth  in  intellectual  power  consists  in 
tlie  development  of  the  capacity  of  discrimination. 

3.  What  relation  does  grammar  bear  to  logic,  psychology,  and 
history  ? 

4.  Mention  some  parts  of  grammar  that  the  primary  pupil  can 
comprehend,  and  some  that  are  beyond  the  range  of  the  grammar 
school  pupil. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

THE   EDUCATIONAL   VALUE   OF   READING. 

Reading  and  Education.  —  This  chapter  could  with 
almost  equal  propriety  be  entitled  The  Educational  Value 
of  Education.  For  the  process  of  education  might  with- 
out serious  inaccuracy  be  defined  as  reading  the  right 
books  in  the  right  way.  He  who  leaves  school  with  his 
taste  so  cultivated  that  he  can  discriminate  between  good 
books  and  bad,  and  with  his  powers  so  developed  that  he 
can  assimilate  what  he  reads,  has  the  essentials  of  an  edu- 
cation ;  while  he  who  cannot  do  this  is  at  bottom  an  un- 
educated man,  no  matter  what  universities  he  may  have 
attended  or  how  many  degrees  may  have  been  conferred 
upon  him. 

Nevertheless  the  training  resulting  from  such  subjects 
as  arithmetic,  grammar,  language  lessons,  nature  study, 
and  even  history  could  not,  without  an  undue  extension  of 
the  term,  be  included  under  reading  as  the  word  is  used  in 
this  country.  What  is  here  proposed  for  discussion  is  the 
educational  value  of  that  school  exercise  which  goes  by  the 
name  of  reading. 

Dr.  Harris  on  the  Educational  Value  of  Reading.  —  Dr. 

Harris  maintains  that  the  mere  process  of  learning  to  read 
is  **  far  more  disciplinary  to  the  mind  than  any  species  of 
observation  of  differences  among  material  things,  because 
of  the  fact  that  the  word  has  a  twofold  character  —  ad- 

z6i 


262     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

dressed  to  external  sense  as  spoken  sound  to  the  ear,  or  as 
written  and  printed  word  to  the  eye  —  but  containing  a 
meaning  or  sense  addressed  to  the  understanding  and  only 
to  be  seized  by  introspection.'*  "The  pupil,"  he  continues, 
"  must  call  up  the  corresponding  idea  by  thought,  memory, 
and  imagination,  or  else  the  word  will  cease  to  be  a  word 
and  remain  only  a  sound  or  character.  On  the  other 
hand,  observation  of  things  and  movements  does  not  neces- 
sarily involve  this  twofold  act  of  analysis,  introspective  and 
objective,  but  only  the  latter  —  the  objective  analysis.  It 
is  granted  that  we  all  have  frequent  occasion  to  condemn 
poor  methods  of  instruction  as  teaching  words  rather  than 
things.  But  we  admit  that  we  mean  empty  sounds  or 
characters  rather  than  true  words.  Our  suggestions  for 
the  correct  method  of  teaching  amount  in  this  case  simply 
to  laying  stress  on  the  meaning  of  the  word,  and  to  setting 
the  teaching  process  on  the  road  of  analysis  of  content 
rather  than  form.  In  the  case  of  words  used  to  store  up 
external  observation  the  teacher  is  told  to  repeat  and  make 
alive  again  the  act  of  observation  by  which  the  word  ob- 
tained its  original  meaning.  In  the  case  of  a  word  ex- 
pressing a  relation  between  facts  or  events,  the  pupil  is  to 
be  taken  step  by  step  through  the  process  of  reflection  by 
which  the  idea  was  built  up.  Since  the  word,  spoken  and 
written,  is  the  sole  instrument  by  which  reason  can  fix,  pre- 
serve, and  communicate  both  the  data  of  sense  and  the  re- 
lations discovered  between  them  by  reflection,  no  new 
method  in  education  has  been  able  to  supplant  in  the 
school  the  branches,  reading  and  penmanship.  But  the 
real  improvements  in  method  have  led  teachers  to  lay 
greater  and  greater  stress  on  the  internal  factor  of  the 
word,  on  its  meaning,  and  have  in  manifold  ways  shown 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   READING.         26^ 

how  to  repeat  the  original  experiences  that  gave  the  mean- 
ing to  concrete  words,  and  the  original  comparisons  and 
logical  deductions  by  which  the  ideas  of  relation  and  causal 
processes  arose  in  the  mind  and  required  abstract  words  to 
preserve  and  communicate  them/'  ^ 

The  Educational  Value  of  Reading  and  Observation  Les- 
sons. —  While  what  is  here  said  as  to  improvements  in  the 
methods  of  teaching  reading  may  be  readily  granted,  the 
validity  of  the  argument  to  show  the  superiority  of  the 
educational  value  of  learning  to  read  over  observation  les- 
sons is  not  beyond  dispute.  For,  however  true  it  may  be 
that  the  observation  of  a  flower,  for  example,  calls  for 
nothing  but  objective  analysis,  while  learning  to  read  a 
simple  sentence,  as  TAe  dog  runSy  involves  not  only  this,  but 
the  recalling  of  the  thought  which  it  expresses,  we  have  no 
right  to  draw  from  this  any  conclusions  as  to  the  compara- 
tive disciplinary  effect  of  the  two  processes  on  the  mind 
until  we  have  learned  which  of  the  two  calls  forth  the  more 
strenuous  exertion.  If  the  objective  analysis  involved  in 
the  study  of  the  flower  demands  more  concentrated  atten- 
tion than  do  both  the  objective  and  the  introspective  analy- 
sis required  in  reading  a  sentence,  then  the  single  act  of 
analysis  necessary  in  the  one  case  is  more  disciplinary  than 
the  double  act  involved  in  the  other. 

From  this  point  of  view  it  is  at  once  evident  that  the 
question  whether  the  observation  of  things  or  reading  is 
the  more  disciplinary  cannot  be  answered.  For  while  in 
some  cases  the  introspective  analysis  required  in  intelligent 
reading  is  so  simple  that  the  school  child  in  the  lowest 
grades  has  no  difficulty  in  performing  it,  in  others  it  tests 
*  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen, 


a64    A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION 

severely  the  powers  of  mature  and  able  men.     No  child 
has  any  doubt  as  to  the  meaning  of 

«*  Twinkle,  twinkle,  little  star, 
How  I  wonder  what  you  are  I 
Up  above  the  world  so  high, 
Like  a  diamond  in  the  sky.'* 

But  who  can  be  sure  that  he  realizes  the  thought  which 
Shakspere  meant  to  express  when  he  wrote  these  lines : 

"What  may  this  mean. 
That  thou,  dead  corse,  again  In  complete  steel 
Revisit'st  thus  the  glimpses  of  the  moon. 
Making  night  hideous;  and  we  fools  of  nature 
So  horridly  to  shake  our  disposition 
With  thoughts  beyond  the  reaches  of  our  souls?" 

Or  that  sublime  cathedral  the  vision  of  which  entranced 
Wordsworth  when  he  wrote : 

«*But  for  those  obstinate  questionings 
Of  sense  and  outward  things, 
Fallings  from  us,  vanishings; 
Blank  misgivings  of  a  creature 
Moving  about  in  worlds  not  realized, 
High  instincts,  before  which  our  mortal  nature 
Did  tremble  like  a  guilty  thing  surprised: 
But  for  those  first  affections. 
Those  shadowy  recollections, 
Which,  be  they  what  they  may, 
Are  yet  the  fountain-light  of  all  our  day, 
Are  yet  a  master  light  of  all  our  seeing"? 

On  the  other  hand,  that  a  fish  has  gills,  two  eyes,  and 
a  tail  is  evident  at  a  glance  to  a  child ;  but  the  ability  to 
see  in  it  all  that  Agassiz  saw  results  only  from  long  and 
strenuous  years  of  study. 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  the  question  as  to  the  com- 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   READING.         265 

parativc  disciplinary  value  of  reading  and  observation 
lessons  cannot  be  answered  because  it  deals  with  incom- 
mensurable things.  The  discussion,  however,  has  served 
Jts  purpose  if  it  has  made  clear  the  fact  that  reading  has  a 
disciplinary  value  —  that  an  increase  of  intellectual  power 
may  as  certainly  result  from  the  study  of  a  poem  as  from 
the  study  of  a  problem  in  geometry.^ 

Mistakes  in  the  Teaching  of  Reading.  —  But  it   is  not 

primarily  because  of  its  effect  on  the  intellect  that  reading 
deserves  the  place  that  will  one  day  be  accorded  to  it  in 
the  school.  The  notion  that  it  is  responsible  for  some 
grievous  errors.  In  the  college  and  the  university  it 
causes  professors  to  mistake  a  learned  acquaintance  with 
editions  and  analyses  and  annotations  and  allusions  and 
etymologies  for  an  appreciative  knowledge  of  literature ; 
in  the  grammar  school  and  the  high  school  it  makes 
teachers  confound  a  detailed  knowledge  of  the  lives  of 
great  writers  with  a  love  of  the  works  to  which  those  writers 
owe  their  place  in  the  world.  Knowledge  of  editions 
and  etymologies  and  biographies  is  at  best  only  knowledge 
about  literature.  To  confuse  this  with  literature  itself  is 
like  confusing  an  account  of  a  banquet  with  the  banquet 
itself,  or  a  description  of  Beethoven's  symphonies  with  the 
symphonies  themselves.  The  ultimate  purpose  of  all 
knowledge  about  literature  is  to  help  the  student  to  re- 
think the  thoughts  and  refeel  the  feelings  of  an  author. 
So  far  as  this  knowledge  contributes  to  that  end  it  is  good ; 
so  far  as  it  is  taken  as  a  substitute  for  literature  itself  it  is 
absolutely  pernicious.      Better  by  far  an  intimate,  loving 

1  See  Ruskin's  Sesame  and  Lilies,  pp.  26-34,  for  a  splendid  illustration 
^i  the  way  in  which  this  intellectual  cultivation  may  be  derived 


a66     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

acquaintance  with  Wordsworth's  Ode  on  the  Intimations 
of  Immortality  or  Gray's  Elegy  written  in  a  Country 
Churchyard,  without  any  knowledge  whatever  of  the  per- 
sonality of  the  authors,  than  an  external,  mechanical  ac- 
quaintance, however  extended,  with  their  lives,  without  any 
knowledge  of  their  works.  "The  essence  of  literature,"  it 
has  been  finely  said,  **  is  beauty.  To  study  it  mechanically 
is  like  grasping  a  butterfly." 

Value  of  the  Knowledge  of  Real  Men.  —  It  is  indeed  true, 
as  Socrates  long  ago  insisted,  that  a  knowledge  of  human 
nature  is  of  all  knowledge  the  most  valuable.  And  to 
know  the  great  men  of  the  world  is  peculiarly  •valuable. 
By  becoming  intimately  acquainted  with  the  seers  of  the 
race  we  may  learn  what  they  thought  about  the  art  of 
living  —  the  art  of  so  ordering  our  lives  as  to  make  them 
in  the  deepest  and  truest  sense  a  success.  Standing  on 
their  shoulders  we  may  perhaps  see  above  the  fogs  and 
vapors  that  dim  the  eye  of  public  opinion,  and  realize  that 
the  only  genuinely  successful  life  is  that  which  is  knit 
most  closely  to  the  human  race  ;  that  the  only  wealth  that 
counts  is  that  greatness  of  soul  which  enriches  not  only  its 
possessor,  but  all  other  men ;  that  our  real  purpose  here  is 
"to  make  ourselves  brave,  true,  just,  and  honorable  men."^ 

How  to  Become  Acquainted  with  a  Man  of  Thought.  — 
But  you  can  no  more  get  a  vital  knowledge  of  a  man  of 
thought  by  learning  what  he  did  than  you  can  of  a  man  of 
action  by  learning  what  he  wrote.  The  one  put  his  deep- 
est, truest  self  into  his  deeds,  the  other  into  his  writings. 
That  is  what  Noah  Porter  meant  when  he  said  that  a  good 
1  Educational  Review,  Vol.  V.  p.  169. 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   READING.         267 

book  is  of  more  value  to  the  world  than  a  good  man.  A 
good  book  is  a  good  man  at  his  best  —  a  good  man 
idealized.  To  be  content,^  therefore,  with  biographical 
knowledge  —  with  knowing,  for  example,  when  Words- 
worth was  born,  where  he  lived,  when  he  travelled,  with 
whom  he  talked,  what  poems  he  wrote  —  is  like  going  to 
a  museum  and  spending  the  time  in  ascertaining  the  size 
of  the  building  and  the  amount  of  room  given  to  its  various 
departments. 

Literature  in  the  Elementary  School — Homer  and  Shaks- 
pere.  —  Can  the  pupil  of  the  elementary  school  sit  at  the 
feet  of  the  sages  of  the  world  and  be  taught  by  them  ? 
To  some  extent  he  can.  The  deepest  lessons  that  Homer 
and  Dante  and  Shakspere  and  Milton  have  to  teach 
he  could  not  learn,  even  if  he  had  the  time  to  study 
them.  But  thei-e  are  detached  passages  from  all  these 
writers  which  can  be  made  to  appeal  to  him  not  only 
because  of  their  literary  beauty,  but  because  of  their  per- 
suasive presentation  of  some  helpful  view  of  man  and  life. 

From  "the  great  Homeric  story*'  he  may  learn  how 
Achilles,  "though  aided  continually  by  the  wisest  of  the 
gods,  and  burning  with  the  desire  of  justice  in  his  heart, 
becomes  yet,  through  ill-governed  passion,  the  most  cruel 
of  men."  ^ 

From  a  study  of  Shakspere's  historical  plays  he  may 
learn  "how  a  man  may  succeed  in  attaining  a  practical 
mastery  of  the  world,"  ^  and  be  made  to  see  the  stern 
reality  of  the  moral  laws  by  which  the  world  is  governed, 
and  that  a  man  cannot  outrage  them  without  being  over- 

1  Ruskin,  Sesame  and  Lilies. 

^  Dowden,  Shakspere's  Mind  and  Art. 


a68  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

whelmed.  Learning  from  the  teacher  the  less  interesting 
parts  of  the  story,  he  may  be  taught  in  the  master's  own 
language  those  lessons  of  life  which  are  valid  for  all  time. 

Elsewhere  in  this  book  stress  has  been  laid  upon  the 
importance  of  biography.  In  connection  with  these  histor- 
ical plays,  the  educational  value  of  biography  and  that  of 
literature  may  be  so  combined  that  each  may  be  made  to 
heighten  the  effect  of  the  other.  To  illustrate.  Take  the 
story  of  Cardinal  Wolsey.  Shakspere  tells  us  that  "  from 
his  cradle  he  was  a  scholar,  and  a  ripe  and  good  one, 
exceeding  wise,  fair-spoken  and  persuading,"  avaricious 
indeed,  but  of  princely  generosity,  endowing,  after  the 
fashion  of  the  rich  men  of  our  time,  "those  towers  of 
learning,  Ipswich  and  Oxford."  But  he  was,  withal,  a 
man  of  unbounded  and  unscrupulous  ambition,  **ever  rank- 
ing himself  with  princes,"  ready  to  employ  any  means  to 
attain  his  ends.  "  Simony  was  fair  play.  In  the  presence 
[of  the  king]  he  would  say  untruths  ;  and  be  ever  double 
both  in  his  words  and  meaning  "  ;  pitiless  except  when  he 
meant  to  ruin,  mighty  in  his  promises,  but  in  his  perform- 
ance nothing.  And  so  he  fell.  In  language  as  beautiful 
as  it  is  pathetic  he  is  himself  made  to  set  forth  the  causes 
of  his  fall : 

"  Farewell  I  a  long  farewell  to  all  my  greatness  I 
This  is  the  state  of  man:  to-day  he  puts  forth 
The  tender  leaves  of  hope,  to-morrow  blossoms, 
And  bears  his  blushing  honors  thick  upon  him; 
The  third  day  comes  a  frost,  a  killing  frost ; 
And,  when  he  thinks,  good  easy  man,  full  surely 
His  greatness  is  a-ripening,  nips  his  root, 
And  then  he  falls,  as  I  do.     I  have  ventured, 
Like  Httle  wanton  boys  that  swim  on  bladders, 
This  many  summers  in  a  sea  of  glory, 
But  far  beyond  my  depth :  my  high-blown  pricft 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   READING.         269 

At  length  broke  under  me  and  now  has  left  me, 
Weary  and  old  with  service,  to  the  mercy 
Of  a  rude  stream,  that  must  for  ever  hide  me. 
Vain  pomp  and  glory  of  this  world,  I  hate  ye: 
I  feel  my  heart  new  open'd;  O,  how  wretched 
Is  that  poor  man  that  hangs  on  princes*  favors  1  ** 

And  Still  more  plainly  in  the  following  passage : 

"  Cromwell,  I  did  not  think  to  shed  a  tear 
In  all  my  miseries ;  but  thou  hast  forc'd  me. 
Out  of  thy  honest  truth,  to  play  the  woman. 
Let's  dry  our  eyes :  and  thus  far  hear  me,  Cromwell ; 
And,  when  I  am  forgotten,  as  I  shall  be, 
And  sleep  in  dull  cold  marble,  where  no  mention 
Of  me  more  must  be  heard  of,  say,  I  taught  thee, 
Say  Wolsey,  that  once  trod  the  ways  of  glory, 
And  sounded  all  the  depths  and  shoals  of  honor, 
Found  thee  a  way,  out  of  his  wreck,  to  rise  inj; 
A  sure  and  safe  one,  though  thy  master  mks'd  it. 
Mark  but  my  fall,  and  that  that  ruin'd  me. 
Cromwell,  I  charge  thee,  fling  away  ambition: 
By  that  sin  fell  the  angels ;  how  can  man,  then, 
The  image  of  his  Maker,  hope  to  win  by  it  ? 
Love  thyself  last :  cherish  those  hearts  that  hate  thee ; 
Corruption  wins  not  more  than  honesty. 
Still  in  thy  right  hand  carry  gentle  peace, 
To  silence  envious  tongues.     Be  just,  and  fear  not: 
Let  all  the  ends  thou  aim'st  at  be  thy  country's. 
Thy  God's,  and  truth's;  then  if  thou  fall'st,  O  Cromwell, 
Thou  fall'st  a  blessed  martyr.     Serve  the  king; 
And,  —  prythee,  lead  me  in: 
There  take  an  inventory  of  all  I  have, 
To  the  last  penny;  'tis  the  king's:  my  robe 
And  my  integrity  to  heaven,  is  all 
I  dare  now  call  mine  own.     O  Cromwell,  Cromwell  I 
Had  I  but  serv'd  my  God  with  half  the  zeal 
I  serv'd  my  king,  he  would  not  in  mine  age 
Have  left  me  naked  to  mine  enemies." 

And  so  he  who  had  "  trod  the  ways  of  glory,  and  sounded 
all  the  depths  and  shoals  of  honor,*'  went,  an  "old  man, 


ayo    A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

broken  with  the  storms  of  state/'  to  the  Abbey  of  Leices- 
ter, and  asked  permission  "  to  lay  his  weary  bones  among 
ye,"  and  begged  "a  little  earth  for  charity,"  and  there  died. 

Bums,  Lowell,  and  Holmes.  —  But  not  alone  from  the 
great  writers  who  "roll  on  like  mighty  rivers  through  the 
country  of  thought,"  but  from  the  "little  Valclusa  foun- 
tains," the  Burnses,  Lowells,  Holmeses,  and  hosts  of  other 
men,  may  our  pupils  refresh  themselves.  Burns  shall  teach 
them  the  dignity  and  grandeur  of  simple,  unassuming  man- 
hood. Lowell  shall  make  them  feel  that  there  is  a  lofty 
patriotism  which  does  not  say,  "  My  country,  may  she  be 
right !  but  right  or  wrong,  my  country  ! "  but  which  fairly 
quivers  with  anguish  at  the  thought  of  national  dishonor 
and  national  wrong-doing.  Holmes  shall  tell  them  how,  as 
the  swift  seasons  roll,  they  may  build  for  their  souls  more 
stately  mansions. 

What  Literature  is  Available  for  School  Purposes. — - 
How  much  may  be  done  in  this  direction,  how  much  pre- 
cious ore  may  be  mined  from  our  own  great  literature  and 
the  other  literatures  of  the  world  for  the  enrichment  of  the 
school,  I  do  not  know  —  I  do  not  believe  that  any  one  does. 
The  world  has  not  yet  come  to  see  that  the  art  of  living 
is  the  art,  and  that  whoever  is  ignorant  of  that,  whatever 
else  he  may  know,  knows  nothing  to  the  point.  Nor  has 
the  world  yet  realized  that  the  only  criterion  by  which  we 
can  determine  the  value  of  an  institution  to  society  is  the 
extent  to  which  it  contributes  to  this  art,  and  that  therefore 
to  the  school  belongs  an  unquestioned  preeminence  among 
the  institutions  of  civilization.  Nor,  again,  has  the  world  yet 
come  to  learn  that  the  school  can  best  perform  its  transcend- 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   READING. 


171 


ently  important  work  by  passing  on  to  the  rising  generation 
the  deepests  insights  and  highest  aspirations  of  the  race. 
Nor  has  it  yet  come  to  feel  that  Hterature  is  not,  as  Spencer 
seems  to  think,  a  sort  of  toy  to  amuse  one  in  his  leisure 
moments,  but  an  educational  force  of  profound  importance. 
When  that  day  comes,  as  come  it  will,  some  tasks  now 
thought  beneath  their  dignity  will  appear  not  unworthy  of 
great  men.  Then  great  scholars  will  realize  the  extent  of 
the  service  they  can  render  to  society  by  ransacking  the 
literatures  of  the  world  for  the  fittest  material  to  be  used 
in  the  education  of  the  young.  When  generations  of  able 
and  devoted  scholars  shall  have  worked  at  this  task,  when 
generations  of  thoroughly  trained  teachers  shall  have  availed 
themselves  of  their  work,  and  that  in  a  society  where  ideals 
of  life  and  conduct  have  been  more  and  more  moulded  by 
the  deepest  insights  of  the  race,  I  believe  that  results  may 
be  accomplished  by  education  which  we  hardly  dare  hope 
for  now.  In  this  connection  we  should  do  well  to  re- 
member that  perhaps  the  greatest  mind  that  ever  worked 
out  an  elaborate  philosophy  of  education  —  a  mind  that  no 
one  will  accuse  of  undervaluing  the  importance  of  intellec- 
tual training  and  the  dignity  of  intellectual  life  —  reached 
the  conclusion  that  the  one  aim  of  elementary  education 
should  be  the  formation  of  character,  and  that  the  great 
instrument  to  be  employed  in  attaining  this  is  literature. 
Very  suggestive,  also,  is  one  of  the  figures  he  used  to 
express  his  idea  of  the  way  in  which  literature  might  be 
made  to  produce  this  effect.  The  study  of  literature,  said 
Plato,  should  dye  the  character  so  indelibly  with  a  love  of 
the  principles  by  which  life  is  to  be  guided,  that  all  the 
temptations  to  which  life  may  be  subjected  will  not  avail  to 
wash  it  out. 


^y±  A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

Pleasure  to  be  Derived  from  Literature.  —  In  addition 
to  the  intellectual  and  moral  effects  which  should  be  aimed 
at  in  the  teaching  of  literature  may  be  mentioned  the 
capacity  to  enjoy  it.  The  boy  who  thoroughly  enjoys 
Gray's  Elegy  has  studied  it  to  some  purpose  even  if  he  is  no 
better  —  although  he  probably  will  be  —  for  having  studied 
it.  Indeed  the  peculiar  moral  effect  which  may  be  pro- 
duced by  the  study  of  literature  is  probably  due  to  the  fact 
that  it  is  beautiful  as  well  as  ethical.  However  this  may 
be,  literature  that  is  simply  beautiful  has  a  right  to  a  place 
in  the  school  programme.  Take,  for  instance,  such  lines 
as  these  of  Shelley's  : 

«*In  a  dell  *mid  lawny  hills 
Which  the  wild  sea  murmur  fills, 
And  soft  sunshine,  and  the  sound 
Of  old  forests  echoing  round, 
And  the  light  and  smell  divine 
Of  all  the  flowers  that  breathe  and  shine." 

They  fill  the  mind  with  beautiful  thoughts  of  Nature  and 
her  sensuous  delights,  and  therefore  represent  a  type 
of  literature  which  the  school  should  teach.  For,  we 
remember,  delight  in  and  appreciation  of  beauty  is  one  of 
the  ultimate  ends  of  life,  one  of  the  things  that  make  life 
worth  the  living. 


QUESTIONS    ON    THE    TEXT. 

1.  Why  does  Dr.  Harris  think  that  learning  to  read  is  more  dis- 
ciplinary than  the  observation  of  things  ? 

2.  Is  his  argument  sound  ? 

3.  What  does  he  mean  by  introspective  analysis,  and  what  by 
objective  analysis  ? 

4.  Upon  what  improvtments  in  method  does  he  lay  stress? 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   READING.        (273 

5.  How  are  the  comparative  values  of  reading  and  observation 
lessons  to  be  ascertained  ? 

6.  Emphasize  some  mistakes  that  are   made  in   the  teaching  of 
reading. 

7.  What  is  meant  by  a  '*  man  of  thought,"  and  how  are  we  to  get 
acquainted  with  him  ? 

8.  Show  that  the  elementary  pupil  may  be  taught  to  appreciate 
the  great  writers  of  the  world. 

9.  What  did  Plato  regard  as  the  aim  of  elementary  education  ? 
10.  What  study  contributes  most  directly  to  that  end? 


SUGGESTIVE  QUESTIONS. 

1.  Do  you  think  the  phrase  "thoughts  beyond  the  reaches  of 
our  souls  "  expressed  a  definite  idea  in  Shakspere's  mind  ? 

2.  Do  you  know  what  the  quotation  from  Wordsworth  means  ? 

3.  How  can  you  ascertain  whether  the  pupils  in  the  upper  grades 
of  the  grammar  school  can  be  interested  in  Shakspere's  story  of 
Wolsey  ? 

4.  Why  has  so  little  been  done  towards  making  the  great  litera- 
tures of  the  world  available  for  the  school? 

5.  What  literatures  have  received  most  attention  in  the  school, 
and  why  ? 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OF  ARITHMETIC. 

Arithmetic  as  a  Science  and  as  an  Art.  —  Arithmetic  is 
both  a  science  and  an  art.  As  a  science  it  is  concerned 
with  the  principles  that  underlie  arithmetical  operations ; 
as  an  art,  with  the  rules  in  accordance  with  which  those 
operations  are  performed  and  the  requisite  facility  in  apply- 
ing them.  As  an  art  it  is  occupied  with  the  result  and  the 
result  only ;  as  a  science,  with  the  method  by  which  the 
result  was  reached,  and  the  logical  relations  of  its  various 
steps.  One  asks  what  is  true  ;  the  other,  why  it  is  true. 
So  far  as  it  is  an  art,  all  that  the  boy  needs  to  know  when 
he  is  dealing  with  the  division  of  fractions  is  that  he  must 
invert  the  terms  of  the  divisor  and  proceed  as  in  multipli- 
cation ;  from  the  scientific  side  it  behooves  him  to  know 
why  this  is  so  —  what  is  the  particular  property  of  num- 
ber that  makes  necessary  this  process  in  order  to  arrive  at 
the  truth.  Evidently,  therefore,  the  educational  value  of 
the  subject  differs  according  as  it  is  considered  as  an  art 
or  as  a  science. 

Educational  Value  of  Arithmetic  as  an  Art.  —  As  an  art 
arithmetic  should  be  taught  to  give  accuracy  to  the  child's 
concepts.  As  Professor  Jackman  puts  it,  "  It  is  the  func- 
tion of  the  mathematical  element  in  education  to  give 
accuracy  and  exactness  to  ideas,  to  render  hazy  notions 
clear,  and  to  evolve  the  definite  from  the  indefinite.*'^ 

1  Educational  Review,  Vol.  V.  p.  41. 
274 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   ARITHMETIC. 


275 


The  prevalent  opinion  is  that  the  importance  of  arithme- 
tic as  an  art  is  due  to  its  bearing  on  the  problems  of  every- 
day life,  commerce,  etc.  But  wherever  knowledge  is 
needed  for  any  purpose,  whether  for  thought  or  for  action, 
exact  information  is  manifestly  more  useful  than  indefinite 
knowledge.  If  it  is  worth  while  to  know  that  the  sun  is  a 
long  way  off,  it  is  still  better  worth  while  to  know  that  it 
is  ninety-three  millions  of  miles  away  ;  if  it  is  useful  to 
know  that  light  travels  with  almost  inconceivable  rapidity, 
the  knowledge  that  it  travels  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred 
and  eighty  thousand  miles  in  a  second  is  still  more  useful ; 
if  any  purpose  is  served  in  knowing  that  the  yearly  income 
of  some  of  our  rich  Americans  is  almost  fabulously  great, 
that  purpose  is  served  in  a  still  higher  degree  by  knowing 
that  the  income  of  John  D.  Rockefeller  is  probably  more 
than  twice  as  great  as  was  that  of  the  American  govern- 
ment during  any  year  of  Washington's  two  administrations. 
In  a  word,  whether  knowledge  is  for  the  sake  of  thought 
or  of  feeling  or  of  action,  it  will  perform  its  function  well 
or  ill  according  as  it  is  exact  or  inexact.  Thinking  that  is 
based  on  inexact  knowledge  issues  in  incorrect  conclusions, 
feeling  that  results  from  it  may  be  positively  harmful,  and 
action  that  is  prompted  by  it  is  likely  to  be  injudicious. 

Arithmetic  as  an  Art  Should  Give  Definiteness  to  all  our 
Concepts.  —  The  difference  between  the  ordinary  and  the 
true  conception  of  the  educational  value  of  arithmetic  as 
an  art  becomes  apparent  when  we  remember  that  while 
the  erroneous  theory  regards  its  value  as  consisting  in  its 
capacity  to  give  definiteness  to  a  certain  restricted  class  of 
the  child's  future  concepts,  the  true  theory  finds  it  valuable 
because  it  helps  to  give  definiteness  to  all  his  ideas,  as 


276  A    BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

well  those  that  he  has  now  as  those  that  he  may  form 
throughout  life.  A  pernicious  fallacy  strongly  entrenched 
in  current  educational  thought  is  that  since  education  is  of 
value  only  in  so  far  as  it  is  of  service  in  the  making  of  a 
livelihood,  it  has  no  relation  to  the  life  of  the  child  during 
the  formative  years.  As  thus  conceived  his  education  is  like 
the  nuts  the  squirrel  stores  up  in  summer  —  for  the  future. 
It  is  a  process  of  storing  up  facts  and  intellectual  power, 
and  acquiring  capacities,  that  will  be  useful  to  him  when 
he  begins  to  make  his  own  way  in  the  world  —  not  before. 

If  any  reader  of  this  book  is  still  of  this  opinion,  we  can 
only  say  that  since  Ephraim  is  joined  to  his  idols,  there  is 
nothing  to  be  done  but  to  let  him  alone.  But  those  who 
agree  with  us  in  holding  that  education  is  a  process  of 
preparation  for  living  need  not  be  reminded  that  the  only 
way  to  get  ready  to  live  is  to  live.  The  child  acquires 
the  capacity  for  the  larger  physical  and  mental  tasks  of 
the  morrow  by  doing  the  smaller  ones  of  to-day.  Life; 
consists  of  an  uninterrupted  series  of  changes :  it  is  the 
function  of  education  so  to  correlate  these  changes  that 
they  shall  constitute  an  uninterrupted  growth. 

From  this  point  of  view  it  is  evident  that  the  true  object 
of  teaching  arithmetic  as  an  art  is  to  give  that  degree  of 
definiteness  to  the  child's  conceptions  which  will  best  enable 
him  to  live  in  the  present.  Child  and  man  alike,  each  ac- 
cording to  his  capacity,  are  to  '*  think  clear,  feel  deep,  bear 
fruit  well.'*  And  if  we  have  grasped  the  thought  that  the 
life  of  each  of  us  should  be  such  as  to  make  it  a  distinct 
contribution  to  the  wealth  of  the  universe,  we  shall  be  able 
to  see  that  the  more  completely  this  is  so  the  more  cer- 
tainly will  every  phase  of  life  have  intrinsic  value.  To 
give  to  every  stage  of  it  that  degree  of  completeness  which 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   ARITHMETIC. 


277 


depends    on   exact,    vivid  conceptions   is,    we  repeat,  the 
function  of  arithmetic  as  an  art. 

Two  Methods  of  Teaching  Arithmetic  as  an  Art.  —  Two 
very  different  methods  are  followed  in  the  teaching  of 
arithmetic :  one  seeks  to  develop  in  the  mind  of  the  child 
certain  conceptions  in  order  to  have  material  for  problems ; 
the  other  takes  the  conceptions  he  has  already  formed  and 
employs  arithmetic  to  give  them  greater  definiteness.  No 
one  will  deny  that  the  former  has  been  the  method  almost 
universally  pursued.  The  child  has  been  taught  certain 
facts  about  stocks,  bonds,  taxes,  commissions,  insurance, 
interest,  discount,  and  the  like,  not  because  information 
about  these  things  at  that  time  is  valuable  in  itself,  but 
because  those  facts  furnish  materials  for  a  certain  sort  of 
problems.  Now  the  method  that  makes  what  is  taught 
depend  upon  arithmetic  has  nothing  whatever  in  common 
with  the  method  that  makes  arithmetic  depend  upon  the 
immediate  needs  of  a  child  as  a  human  being.  The  one 
subordinates  growth  to  arithmetic  ;  the  other  employs  arith- 
metic as  a  means  of  growth.  The  one  is  the  logical  result  of 
the  theory  that  the  object  of  education  is  merely  to  enable 
the  future  man  to  do  certain  things;  the  other,  of  the 
theory  that  its  function  is  to  transform  the  inner  life  so 
as  to  make  it  a  thing  of  beauty  and  of  intrinsic  worth. 

How  Arithmetic  may  Give  Definiteness  (i)  to  the  Concepts 
of  Elementary  Science.  —  Professor  Jackman  has  shown 
in  the  able  article  already  cited  how  arithmetic  may  be 
employed  to  make  the  concepts  of  elementary  science  more 
clear.  I  quote  the  series  of  problems  given  to  illustrate  his 
point: 


278     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

**I.  Germination  :  Absorption  of  Water  by  Seeds,  —  i.  How  many 
grams  of  water  will  ten  grams  of  seeds  absorb  ?  2.  Ten  grams  of  seeds 
absorb  what  part  of  their  weight  or  bulk  of  water?  3.  What  is  the  ratio 
of  the  weight  (or  bulk)  of  dry  seeds  to  the  weight  (or  bulk)  of  water  they 
will  absorb  ?  4.  Dry  seeds  will  absorb  what  per  cent  of  their  weight  of 
water  ?  5.  Precisely  similar  problems  in  comparing  results  gained  from 
study  of  different  kinds  of  seeds. 

"II.  Study  of  Soil:  Absorption  of  Water,  —  i.  Twenty  grams  of 
soil  will  absorb  how  many  grams  of  water  ?  2.  Twenty  grams  of  soil  will 
absorb  what  part  of  its  weight  of  water  t  3.  What  is  the  ratio  of  twenty 
grams  of  dry  soil  to  the  water  it  wll  absorb.^  4.  Dry  soil  will  absorb  what 
per  cent  of  its  weight  of  water?  5.  Precisely  the  same  questions  relating 
to  subsoil,  sand,  etc.,  and  comparisons  between  them. 

"  III.  Mechanical  Constituents  of  Soil. —  i.  Fifty  grams  of  soil 
contain  how  much  sand  ?  2.  What  part  of  fifty  grams  of  soil  is  sand  ? 
3.  What  is  the  ratio  of  sand  in  fifty  grams  of  soil  ?  4.  In  fifty  grams  of 
soil  what  per  cent  is  sand  ?  5.  Precisely  similar  questions  in  regard  to 
subsoil,  loam,  etc.,  and  comparisons  of  results. 

"  IV.  Relation  of  Animals  and  Plants  as  shown  by  a  Study 
of  Leaves.  —  i.  In  fifty  leaves,  how  many  have  in  some  way  been  used 
by  insects?     2.  In  fifty  leaves,  what  part  has  been   injured   by  insects? 

3.  In  fifty  leaves,  what  is  the  ratio  of  injured  leaves  to  those  uninjured? 

4.  In  fifty  leaves,  what  per  cent  has  been  injured  by  insects?     5.  Precisely 
similar  questions  growing  out  of  a  study  and  comparison  of  different  trees. 

«  V.  Meteorology  for  a  Month  :  Study  of  Rainy  Days.  —  i .  How 
many  days  have  been  rainy  ?  2.  What  part  of  the  entire  month  has  been 
rainy  ?  3.  What  is  the  ratio  of  dry  days  to  wet  ones  during  the  month  ? 
4.  The  number  of  wet  days  during  the  month  is  what  per  cent  of  the  entire 
number  ?  5.  Precisely  similar  problems  arising  from  a  study  of  different 
months  and  the  meteorological  conditions  of  temperature,  air-pressure,  etc. 

"  VI.  Animal  Life  :  Protective  Coloration,  —  i.  In  twenty-five  instances 
how  many  times  did  the  same  butterfly  alight  in  situations  where  its  color 
was  protective  ?  2.  What  part  of  the  whole  number  of  times  in  twenty-five 
instances  did  the  same  butterfly  seek  protective  situations  ?  3.  In  twenty- 
five  instances  the  number  of  times  when  the  same  butterfly  sought  protec- 
tive situations  bears  what  ratio  to  the  number  of  times  when  the  situation 
was  non-protective  ?  4.  In  what  per  cent  of  twenty-five  cases  did  the  same 
butterfly  seek  protective  situations  ?  5.  Precisely  similar  questions  relat- 
ing to  other  insects,  and  comparisons  growing  therefrom.** 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE    OF   ARITHMETIC.      279 

(2)  To  the  Concepts  of  Geography.  —  Arithmetic  may 
also  be  employed  to  give  definiteness  and  vividness  to  the 
ideas  that  are  gained  from  the  study  of  geography.  Into 
how  many  States  of  the  size  of  Rhode  Island  could  Texas 
be  divided  ?  What  is  the  difference  between  the  area  of 
the  German  empire  and  that  of  the  United  States  ?  What 
approximate  number  of  people  could  live  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley  if  it  were  as  densely  populated  as  Belgium  is  ? 
Questions  of  this  kind  could  not  but  prove  helpful. 

(3)  Ideas  Acquired  Out  of  School. —  Arithmetic  may  also 
be  made  to  render  more  definite  and  vivid  the  ideas  that  the 
child  has  acquired  out  of  school.  To  illustrate  :  If  a  man 
earns  ten  dollars  a  week  and  has  to  pay  a  dollar  and  a  half 
a  week  for  rent,  how  much  can  he  spend  during  the  year 
for  food,  clothes,  and  other  necessaries  ?  If  the  bread  for 
his  family  costs  five  cents  a  day,  what  per  cent  of  his  in- 
come does  he  pay  for  it  ?  If  a  carpenter  earns  two  dollars 
and  a  half  a  day  and  spends  sixty  cents  a  week  for  car-fare, 
how  many  days  in  the  year  must  he  work  for  the  money 
he  pays  for  riding  ?  Questions  of  this  sort  can  of  course 
be  varied  and  multiplied  indefinitely,  and  the  answering  of 
them  gives  vividness  and  definiteness  to  ideas  the  child 
already  possesses. 

Incidental  and  Accidental  Teaching  of  Form  Subjects.  — 

This  change  of  front  does  not,  however,  mean  that  less 
care  is  to  be  taken  about  the  thorough  teaching  of  arith- 
metical operations.  ''The  same  principle,"  to  quote  Pro- 
fessor Jackman  again,  "  precisely  holds  in  this  case  that 
is  already  recognized  to  some  extent  and  obeyed  in  teach- 
ing other  subjects.     Formerly  spelling,  reading,  etc.,  were 


280     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

taught  as  ends  ;  now  thought  \^  the  end  and  they  are  inci- 
dental. The  fatal  mistake  that  has  been  made  is  in  teach- 
ing the  thought,  and  making  the  spelling,  etc.,  accidental. 
There  is  a  mighty  difference  between  the  incidental  teach- 
ing of  form  subjects  and  the  accidental  teaching  of  them. 
So  now,  in  this  number  work,  the  teacher  must  clearly 
work  for  the  intrinsic  thought"  — definiteness  of  ideas  — 
"and  make  the  teaching  of  the  arithmetical  operations 
incidental  but  by  no  means  accidental.  These  opera- 
tions must  be  just  as  thoroughly  taught  as  ever  before; 
they  will  be  more  thoroughly  taught  and  in  far  less 
time,  too,  when  teachers  really  grasp  the  subject-matter  in 
hand."i 

Arithmetic  as  a  Science  should  (i)  Make  Clear  the  Differ- 
ence Between  First-  and  Second-hand  Knowledge.  —  The 

study  of  arithmetic  as  a  science  ought  to  help  to  make  clear 
the  difference  between  first-  and  second-hand  knowledge. 
We  say  "help  to  make  clear.'*  For  even  in  the  grammar 
school  the  pupil  should  be  led  to  see  the  difference  between 
these  in  all  of  the  subjects  he  studies  ;  to  see,  for  example, 
that  while  he  is  obliged  to  accept  the  facts  of  history  or 
geography  on  the  authority  of  book  or  teacher,  some  one 
had  to  get  a  first-hand  knowledge  of  them.  The  difference 
between  arithmetic  as  a  science  and  all  the  other  elemen- 
tary school  subjects,  in  this  particular,  is  that  in  teaching 
the  former  not  a  single  step  can  be  taken  without  putting 
this  distinction  in  the  foreground.  The  object  of  the 
study  of  arithmetic  as  a  science  is  to  enable  the  pupil  to 
see  for  himself  the  absolute  truth  of  every  statement  he  is 
called  upon  to  believe.  If  he  accepts  any  statement  as 
*  Educational  Review,  Vol,  V.  pp.  50,  51. 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   ARITHMETIC,      agl 

true  merely  because  some  one  says  it  is,  the  study  of  the 
science  of  arithmetic  is  so  far  a  sheer  waste  of  time. 

(2)    Different    Kinds    of    First-hand    Knowledge.  —  It 

should  also  illustrate  the  difference  between  two  kinds  of 
first-hand  knowledge.  In  his  study  of  nature  the  pupil  has 
had  constant  experience  of  one  kind  of  first-hand  knowl- 
edge. He  has  seen  for  himself  that  certain  leaves  are  in- 
jured by  insects,  that  a  certain  number  of  days  in  a  month 
are  rainy,  etc.,  and  has  based  certain  conclusions  on  his  ob- 
servations. But  in  this  case  he  sees  with  the  bodily  eye  ;  in 
that  of  arithmetic,  with  his  mind's  eye.  The  reasoning 
based  on  the  former  is  inductive  and  the  conclusions,  as 
the  pupil  discovers,  are  often  erroneous.  The  reasoning 
based  on  the  latter  is  deductive  and  the  conclusions  are 
absolutely  certain.  Now  it  is  not  possible  to  teach  arith- 
metic as  a  science  without  making  this  distinction  clear. 
Those  who  imagine  that  induction  has  any  place  in  the 
teaching  of  scientific  arithmetic  deceive  themselves.  We 
do  not  learn  why  things  are  as  they  are  by  concluding 
that  since  a  given  method  has  led  to  a  correct  result  in  a 
number  of  cases  it  will  do  so  in  all  cases.  Unless  the  pupil 
•  sees  that  in  his  arithmetical  reasoning  he  is  starting  from 
absolutely  certain  premises  and  proceeding  by  absolutely  cer- 
tain steps  to  absolutely  certain  conclusions,  he  is  not  learning 
arithmetic  as  a  science.  But  if  he  sees  this,  he  has  learned 
a  fact,  gained  a  point  of  view,  of  immense  importance. 

Arithmetic  as  a  Science  the  Product  of  Deductive 
Reasoning.  —  It  is  implied  in  what  has  been  said  that  the 
study  of  arithmetic  as  a  science  is  a  constant  exercise  of 
deductive  reasoning.     As  Sir  Joshua  Fitch  has  it,  **  It  is  a 


a82     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

discipline  in  closeness  and  continuity  of  thought.  .  .  . 
The  proper  office  of  arithmetic  is  to  serve  as  training  in 
elementary  logic.  ...  It  is  by  arithmetic  more  than  by 
any  other  subject  in  a  school  course  that  the  art  of  think- 
ing —  consecutively,  closely,  logically  —  can  be  effectually 
taught."  ^ 

Too  Much  Time  Given  to  Arithmetic.  —  It  is  because 
of  the  great  importance  that  is  attached  to  this  kind  of 
training  that  our  schools  lay  such  stress  on  the  study 
of  arithmetic.  But  we  have  already  stated  reasons  for 
believing  that  its  value  has  been  greatly  overrated.  Few 
opinions  are  more  universally  accepted  by  thinkers  of  every 
school  than  that  the  notion  which  Sir  Joshua  Fitch  evi- 
dently entertained  that  the  reasoning  power  gained  from 
the  study  of  arithmetic  is  equally  available  for  every  sub- 
ject—  that,  for  example,  the  expert  reasoner  in  arithmetic 
will  be  an  expert  reasoner  in  politics  —  is  false.  If  it 
is  false,  the  enormous  time  given  to  the  study  can  no 
longer  be  justified. 

The  ISrammar  School  the  University  of  the  Masses.-^ 

That  it  can  be  done  is,  to  say  the  least,  doubtful.  The 
grammar  school,  let  it  be  reiterated,  is  the  university  of 
the  masses.  The  masses  will  either  get  a  taste  for  history, 
literature,  and  the  study  of  nature  there,  or  they  will  not 
get  it  at  all.  They  will  get  there  the  elevation  and  human- 
ization  that  result  from  acquaintance  with  some  of  the 
best  thoughts  of  the  race,  or  they  will  not  get  it  at  all. 
They  will  build  for  themselves  a  world  of  law  and  order 
and  beauty  and  goodness  there,  or  they  will  not  do  it  at  all. 
1  Fitch,  Lectures  on  Teaching,  ppf,  320,  321. 


THE   EDUCATIONAL  VALUE   OF   ARITHMETIC.      283 

They  will  learn  there  that  the  best  life  is  not  a  life  of  im- 
pulse and  appetite  and  passion,  but  a  life  controlled  by 
reason,  or  they  will  not  learn  it  at  all. 

To  jeopardize  all  this  by  devoting  so  much  time  to  the 
study  of  arithmetic  as  a  science  is,  we  repeat,  a  doubt- 
ful procedure.  The  question  is  not  whether  the  study  of 
the  science  of  arithmetic  is  valuable,  but  whether  the 
results  to  which  it  leads  are  of  more  value  than  those 
of  the  subjects  it  displaces.  The  school  life  of  the  ele- 
mentary pupil  is  very  short,  and  it  is  the  bounden  duty  of 
those  who  have  charge  of  his  interests  to  see  that  it  is 
taken  up  not  merely  with  what  is  good,  but  with  what  is 
best.  And  one  of  the  most  important  questions  American 
school  superintendents  have  to  consider  is  whether  it  is 
not  incumbent  upon  them,  as  rapidly  as  public  opinion  will 
permit,  to  ignore  arithmetic  as  a  science  in  order  that  the 
time  it  occupies  may  be  given  to  more  liberalizing  and 
more  genuinely  educative  subjects. 


QUESTIONS   ON   THE   TEXT. 

1.  State  the  difference  between  arithmetic  as  a  science  and  as  an 
art. 

2.  What  is  the  educational  value  of  arithmetic  as  an  art? 

3.  Show  that  definite  knowledge  is  more  useful  than  indefinite 
knowledge. 

4.  What  does  the  ordinary  theory  regard  as  the  educational  value 
of  arithmetic  ? 

5.  How  can  we  make  preparation  to  live? 

6.  Contrast  two  methods  of  teaching  arithmetic  as  an  art. 

7.  Show  how  arithmetic  may  give  definiteness  to  the  concepts  of 
elementary  science  and  to  ideas  acquired  out  of  school. 

8.  What  is  meant  by  form  subjects? 

9.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  incidental  and  the  acci- 
dental teaching  of  form  subjects? 


284    A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

10.  State  at  length  the  educational  value  of  arithmetic  as  a  science. 

11.  Why  is  its  value  often  overrated? 

12.  What  fallacy  underlies  the  reasoning  of  Sir  Joshua  Fitch  ? 

13.  Is  too  much  time  given  to  arithmetic,  and  why? 


SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  Are  all  our  concepts  of  a  quantitative  character? 

2.  Can  arithmetic  give  definiteness  to  all  our  concepts  without 
exception  ? 

3.  Can  you  make  a  quantitative  statement  of  the  value  of  arith- 
metic either  as  a  science  or  as  an  art  ? 

4.  Can  you  make  a  quantitative  statement  of  the  educational  value 
of  any  subject  whatever  ? 

5.  Will  psychology  and  pedagogy  ever  become  exact  sciences  ? 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

THE  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OF  NATURE  STUDY. 

Nature  Study  (i)  Increases   our  Interest  in  Nature. — 

The  educational  value  of  nature  study  is  threefold :  first, 
it  increases  our  interest  in  nature ;  secondly,  it  develops  a 
realization  of  law  and  cultivates  a  tendency  to  open-mind- 
edness ;  thirdly,  it  makes  those  who  have  a  special  apti- 
tude for  it  aware  of  the  fact,  and  develops  such  an  interest 
in  the  subject  as  tends  to  stimulate  them  to  specialization 
in  one  or  another  of  its  phases. 

As  to  the  first  point,  it  is  of  course  evident  that  a  scien- 
tific interest  and  an  aesthetic  interest  in  nature  study  are 
widely  different  things.  The  aesthetic  interest  is  the  result 
of  the  appeal  Nature  makes  to  our  sense  of  beauty ;  the 
scientific,  the  result  of  the  appeal  she  makes  to  our  desire 
to  know.  If,  in  the  case  of  the  average  man,  we  had  to 
choose  between  them,  it  is  at  least  doubtful  whether  it 
would  not  be  wise  to  sacrifice  the  scientific  to  the  aesthetic 
interest.  The  life  of  the  average  man  is  probably  more 
enriched  by  the  capacity  to  derive  pleasure  from  listening 
to  the  knell  of  the  parting  day,  from  watching  the  lowing 
herd  as  it  winds  slowly  over  the  meadow,  than  by  a  scien- 
tific interest  in  nature.  But  the  two  interests  are  in  no 
wise  antagonistic.  And  if  the  teacher  of  the  nature  sub- 
jects be  herself  a  lover  of  nature,  if  she  looks  upon  the 
changes  that  pass  over  the  face  of  nature  as  spring  blooms 
into  summer,  and  summer  fades  into  autumn,  and  autumn 

a85 


286     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

gives  way  to  winter,  with  something  of  the  same  fondness 
with  which  the  mother  watches  the  changes  in  her  child  as 
she  traverses  the  road  to  womanhood,  there  is  no  danger 
that  the  aesthetic  interest  of  her  pupils  will  suffer  through 
a  development  of  their  scientific  interest.  Not  only  will 
the  bugs  and  grasshoppers  and  butterflies,  the  trees  and 
leaves,  the  soil  and  minerals,  claim  her  attention,  but  the 
broad  valleys,  the  gently  sloping  hills,  the  sycamores  bend- 
ing over  running  streams  and,  as  it  were,  gravely  bowing 
to  the  trees  on  the  other  side ;  and  her  enthusiastic  love 
of  nature  will  be  as  contagious  as  her  intense  interest  in 
science. 

(2)  Develops  a  Realization  of  Law  and  Cultivates  Open- 
mindedness.  —  The  study  of  nature  is  also  valuable  because 
it  forces  us  to  realize  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  law,  and 
makes  us  feel  that  in  order  to  learn  what  the  laws  of  nature 
are  we  must  go  to  nature  with  the  open-mindedness  of 
little  children.  Every  good,  as  we  know,  has  its  price. 
And  part  of  the  price  we  pay  for  the  benefits  of  the  study 
of  .literature  is  the  tendency  to  blur  the  contrast  between 
thought  and  fact,  between  opinion  and  reality,  between 
what  is  and  what  seems  to  be.  No  one  can  help  reading 
himself,  so  to  speak,  into  an  author.  If  he  cannot  do  it,  the 
author  is  unintelligible.  Many  able  and  cultivated  men 
find  Wordsworth*s  poem  on  Immortality  meaningless 
because  they  have  never  had  the  experiences  which  the 
poem  tries  to  describe.  It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  draw 
the  line  between  experiences  which  really  furnish  the  key 
to  an  author's  meaning  and  those  which  merely  seem  to  do 
so.  And  the  author  is  never  there  to  laugh  at  us  for  our 
blundering.      Shakspere  rests  quietly  in  his  grave  while 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OF  NATURE   STUDY.     287 

one  critic  says  he  means  this,  another  that,  a  third  some- 
thing different,  each  confident  that  he  is  right. 

Now  this  tendency  to  undue  confidence  in  one's  opin- 
ions, the  inevitable  result  of  undue  specialization  in  litera- 
ature,  is  sternly  repressed  by  the  intelligent  study  of  nature. 
Nature,  unlike  most  authors  whom  the  boy  studies  at 
school,  is  not  dead.  She  stands  face  to  face  with  him. 
If  he  forms  an  errroneous  opinion  of  her  meanings,  that 
opinion  will  be  discredited  unless,  indeed,  like  the  people 
of  the  Middle  Ages  and  some  modern  Rip  Van  Winkles, 
he  is  content  to  study  nature  from  a  book.  There  results, 
therefore,  from  the  right  sort  of  nature  study  a  docility, 
an  open-mindedness,  a  willingness  to  hold  one's  opinions  in 
suspense,  a  sense  of  the  difficulty  of  learning  what  is  true, 
and  of  the  great  liability  to  error,  which  is  an  exceedingly 
valuable  trait  of  mind.  Few  intellectual  obstacles  hinder 
the  living  of  a  rational  life  as  greatly  as  does  excessive  con- 
fidence in  one's  own  opinions.  To  live  a  truly  rational  life 
it  is  not  only  necessary  to  feel  as  well  as  know  that  we 
must  be  guided  by  the  truth,  but  that  the  truth  is  difficult 
of  access,  and  to  be  approached  only  by  those  who  seek 
it  with  humility. 

This  lesson  may  be  enforced  not  only  by  the  pupil's  own 
work,  but  by  the  biographical  studies  of  scientific  men 
which  should  accompany  his  nature  study.  For  example, 
take  Kepler,  who  formed  seventeen  different  hypotheses 
and  made  seventeen  sets  of  laborious  observations  and  diffi- 
cult computations  before  he  discovered  the  shape  of  the 
path  of  the  planets  ;  or  Newton,  who  set  aside  his  hy- 
pothesis for  fifteen  years  until  reasoning  from  more  accurate 
data  convinced  him  that  he  had  indeed  discovered  the  law 
which  governs  the  motions  of  the  material  universe. 


288  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

(3)  Incites  to  Specialization  Along  the  Lines  of  Natural 
Bent.  —  A  third  benefit  to  be  derived  from  nature  study  is 
that  those  who  have  a  special  aptitude  for  it  are  incited  to 
specialization  in  some  department  of  natural  science.  That 
this  is  highly  desirable  is  evident  from  three  points  of  view. 
Ignore  the  pupil  altogether,  consider  the  matter  simply 
from  the  point  of  view  of  society,  and  it  is  clear  that 
society  needs  to  have  its  work  done  by  those  who  have  a 
natural  bent  for  it.  All  legitimate  work  is  work  which 
satisfies  a  need  of  society,  and  the  more  its  needs  are  sat- 
isfied by  those  who  have  a  special  aptitude  for  it,  the  less 
the  waste  of  energy,  the  greater  the  productivity,  the  less 
each  member  of  society  has  to  pay  to  have  his  wants  sup- 
plied. 

Ignore  society  in  turn,  and  consider  the  matter  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  individual,  and  from  that  of  the  indi- 
vidual simply  as  desirous  of  promoting  his  material  well- 
being.  Evidently  the  best  way  for  a  man  to  earn  money 
is  to  do  the  work  he  is  best  fitted  to  do.  The  briefless 
lawyers,  the  doctors  who  have  no  patients,  the  preachers 
without  charges,  are  in  the  majority  of  cases  men  who 
are  in  the  wrong  occupation.  They  are  trying  to  fill  a 
r61e  for  which  they  have  no  capacity.  They  are  working 
with  a  fraction  of  themselves,  and  that  not  the  best.  The 
work  for  which  nature  designed  us  is  the  work  in  which  we 
can  put  the  most  of  ourselves  and  in  which,  therefore,  we 
can  achieve  the  largest  results. 

Once  more.  Ignore  the  material  interests  of  the  pupil, 
assume  that  he  has  no  livelihood  to  earn,  and  it  is  still  true 
that  the  wisest  course  to  pursue  in  promoting  his  interests 
is  to  have  him  do  the  work  he  is  best  fitted  to  do.  His 
life  of  thought  and  feeling,  his  life  as  a  human  being,  will 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OF  NATURE   STUDY.     289 

be  better  worth  the  living  through  doing  the  work  in 
which  he  can  put  the  most  of  himself.  Aristotle  said  that 
the  object  of  education  is  to  prepare  us  for  the  right  use 
of  leisure.  The  modern,  democratic  interpretation  of  that 
suggestive  remark  is  that  the  object  of  education  is  to 
prepare  us  to  do  the  work  that  best  promotes  our  interests 
as  human  beings,  for  such  work  is^  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses, leisure  rightly  employed.  From  every  point  of 
view,  therefore,  it  is  evident  that  the  more  the  school  does 
to  make  its  pupils  conscious  of  their  special  aptitudes,  the 
more  it  promotes  all  the  interests  of  the  individual  and 
consequently  those  of  society. 


QUESTIONS   ON   THE   TEXT. 

1.  What  two  different  sorts  of  interest  may  one  have  in  the  study 
of  nature  ? 

2.  Show  that  these  are  not  antagonistic. 

3.  What  is  meant  by  "  realization  of  law  "? 

4.  What  evil  must  we  guard  against  in  the  teaching  of  literature  ? 

5.  What  benefits  may  the  pupil  derive  from  the  study  of  the  lives 
of  men  of  science  ? 

6.  State  the  three  reasons  for  specialization. 

7.  What  did  Aristotle  say  is  the  object  of  education,  and  in  what 
sense  is  it  true  ? 

SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  What  quality  in  the  teacher  will  be  most  effective  in  arousing  a 
scientific  or  an  aesthetic  interest  in  nature,  and  why  1 

2.  Can  you  imagine  a  state  of  society  in  which  every  one  would  be 
working  for  his  livelihood,  and  in  which  nevertheless  Aristotle*s 
ideal  would  be  realized  ? 

3.  What  is  it  that  makes  leisure  really  desirable  ? 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

SCHOOL   MANAGEMENT. 

The  details  of  school  management  would  require  a  vol- 
ume. This  chapter  will  be  restricted  to  the  statement  of 
two  general  principles,  in  the  hope  that  they  may  be  of 
some  service  in  determining  the  "  lay  of  the  land.'* 

The  Object  of  Discipline.  —  The  primarily  important  pur- 
pose of  that  part  of  school  management  which  has  to  do 
with  government  is  the  development  of  character.  It  is 
of  course  true  that  the  rules  of  the  school  grow  out  of  its 
needs.  Pupils  are  forbidden  to  whisper,  change  their  seats 
during  school  hours,  make  unnecessary  noise,  etc.,  because 
these  acts  interfere  with  the  work  of  the  school.  But  the 
boy  who  breaks  the  rules  is  guilty  of  a  more  serious  charge  : 
interference  with  the  development  of  his  own  character. 

The  Function  of  Education.  —  Our  mental  life  begins 
with  a  mass  of  self-seeking  anarchistic  impulses.  It  is  the 
function  of  education  to  suppress  the  anarchist  within  us, 
to  develop  those  sides  of  our  nature  which  make  us  regard 
the  feelings  and  rights  of  others.  We  say  "  suppress  the 
anarchist  within  us."  Every  form  of  wrong-doing  is  a 
form  of  selfishness,  and  selfishness  is  only  a  seeking  of  the 
private,  lower,  individual  self  at  the  expense  of  the  rational, 
ethical,  social  self.  Now  anarchy  is  the  apotheosis  of  the 
private   self.      Its  basal  principle  is  that  neither  in   the 

290 


SCHOOL   MANAGEMENT.  29 1 

school  nor  in  life  must  any  violence  be  done  to  it.  Re- 
garding it  as  the  only  true  self,  repudiating  the  social  self 
as  having  only  conventional  reality,  it  finds,  like  Rousseau, 
authority  pernicious  in  education,  and  government  per- 
nicious in  life. 

The  Principle  of  Anarchy.  —  Between  the  principle  of 
anarchy  —  that  the  true  self  is  the  private  self  —  and  the 
opposite  principle  —  that  the  true  self  is  the  social  self  — 
there  is  no  common  ground.  A  man  may  hold  that  the 
social  self  exists  merely  for  the  sake  of  the  private  self ; 
that  the  best  way  to  promote  the  interests  of  his  private 
self  is  to  profess,  and  perhaps  to  have,  a  certain  amount  of 
regard  for  the  interests  of  society  ;  that  society  had  its 
origin  in  the  desire  of  men  to  promote  the  interests  of 
their  private  selves,  and  that  it  has  no  other  justification. 
In  that  case  he,  like  the  anarchist,  believes  that  his  private 
self  is  his  true  self,  and  the  only  essential  difference 
between  them  is  as  to  the  means  to  be  employed  to  attain 
their  common  end. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  man  may  hold  that  although  the 
social  self  is  a  true  self,  the  private  self  is  also,  since,  in  so 
far  as  the  enjoyments  of  the  individual  have  no  anti-social 
tendency,  he  has  a  right  to  them  whether  they  positively 
tend  to  promote  the  well-being  of  society  or  not.  Undoubt- 
edly. But  a  private  self  that  asks  leave  to  assert  its  claims 
of  the  social  self  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  the 
latter. 

The  Problem  of  the  School.  —  The  problem,  therefore, 
before  the  school  from  this  point  of  view  is  the  subordina- 
ation  of  the  private  to  the  social  self,  the  substitution  of  a 


292  A    BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

life  governed  by  reason  for  a  life  governed  by  impulse. 
The  first  step  towards  the  solution  of  this  problem  is  the 
strenuous  assertion  of  what  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
child  is  purely  arbitrary  authority.  The  mother  cannot 
explain  to  her  babe  the  reason  for  her  requirements.  The 
child  has  no  reason,  is  a  mere  creature  of  impulses  and 
sensations,  and  when  the  light  of  reason  begins  to  dawn  it 
is  for  long  much  too  dim  to  enable  him  to  see  the  reason 
for  what  is  demanded  of  him  at  home  and  at  school.  But 
the  problem  which  both  teacher  and  parent  are  endeavoring 
to  solve  compels  them  to  see  that  their  requirements  are 
not  arbitrarily  made,  that  as  rational  beings  they  have  no 
choice  in  the  matter.  Precisely  as  an  intelligent  man  is 
coerced  by  the  evidence  to  believe  in  the  conclusions  of 
geometry,  so  parent  and  teacher  alike  should  be  compelled 
by  their  regard  for  the  child  to  impose  upon  him  such 
tasks,  subject  him  to  such  restraints,  as  they  do.  Spirit, 
said  Plato,  is  the  natural  ally  of  reason,  and  a  child  will 
never  live  a  rational  life  unless  he  comes  to  love  it.  But 
how  is  a  love  for  it  to  be  developed  t  Not  by  telling  him 
how  beautiful  such  a  life  is,  and  that  he  ought  to  live  it, 
but  by  keeping  him  face  to  face  with  a  life  that  is  actually 
controlled  by  reason. 

The  Child  may  Learn  to  Love  a  Rational  Life  (i)  Because 
He  Wishes  to  Be  Like  His  Teacher.  —  Such  a  life,  lived  by 
those  who  have  authority  over  him,  tends  to  bring  about 
this  result  in  two  ways.  In  the  first  place,  if  his  parents 
and  teachers  are  compelled  by  their  reason  to  require  of 
him  what  they  do,  as  fast  as  his  own  reason  develops  he 
will  become  aware  of  the  fact.  This  will  make  him  feel 
that  all  their  requirements  spring  from  the  same  source, 


SCHOOL  MANAGEMENT.  a93 

and  will  strengthen  his  impulse  towards  obedience  —  and 
all  the  more  because  the  conscientious  parent  or  teacher 
will  be  certain  to  be  the  object  of  enthusiastic  affection. 
But  loving  a  person  who  is  felt  to  be  guided  by  reason 
is  a  long  stride  towards  loving  a  rational  life:  whom  the 
child  loves  he  wishes  to  resemble,  and  when  he  begins  to 
be  aware  that  his  mother  is  governed  by  reason,  not  by 
caprice,  he  begins  to  form  a  new  ideal.  When  this  step 
is  taken  there  is  a  change  in  the  persons  who  are  playing 
important  parts  in  the  drama  of  the  child's  life.  Before 
this  the  child  has  been  governed  by  motives  growing  out 
of  his  private  self.  The  mother  and  teacher  have  been 
able  only  to  appeal  to  his  lower  nature;  there  has  been 
nothing  else  to  appeal  to.  Now  the  higher  nature  begins 
to  assert  itself ;  the  rational  self  becomes  the  ally  of  the 
teacher. 

(2)   Because  his  Teacher  Loves  a  Rational  Life.  —  Not 

only  so :  the  teacher  who  is  guided  by  reason  in  his  deal- 
ings with  his  pupils  yields  to  its  dictates  because  he  loves 
a  rational  life.  But  we  have  seen  already,  in  our  study 
of  imitation,  that  the  only  effective  way  to  kindle  emotion 
is  by  emotion.  Now  the  teacher  who  lives  a  rational  life 
cannot  fail  to  present  to  the  child's  imitative  nature  a,  co^ 
which  he  will  have  a  disposition  to  imitate.  '[ olnr 

The  Influence  of  Imitation  on  Roman  Education.  —  The 

importance  of  this  influence  on  the  life  of  the  child  it 
would  be  difficult  to  overestimate.  The  history  of  educa- 
tion teaches  no  more  important  lesson  than  the  fact  that 
the  most  powerful  force  in  the  education  of  a  people  has 
not  been  found  in  the  schools.     Few  students  of  Roman 


^94 


A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 


history  would  hesitate  to  say  that  the  period  when  Rome 
was  at  her  best  was  when  she  had  no  schools,  and  that  the 
period  when  her  sun  was  on  the  point  of  setting  was  when 
her  education  was  thoroughly  organized  and  when  her 
schools  were  liberally  supported.  Why  is  this.**  It  is 
because  the  beliefs  and  ideals  of  the  young  are  determined 
by  the  beliefs  and  ideals  of  those  with  whom  they  come  in 
contact.  In  the  day  of  Rome's  greatness  the  typica 
Roman  believed  that  the  thing  to  do  was  to  live  for  Rome 
and,  if  need  be,  die  for  her.  This  universal  belief  com- 
municated itself,  through  the  imitative  side  of  human 
nature,  to  the  rising  generation.  In  the  day  of  Rome's 
degeneracy  the  typical  Roman  lord  felt  that  the  thing  to 
do  was  to  live  for  himself,  and  that  the  true  way  to  live 
for  himself  was  to  look  after  his  income,  decorate  his  name 
with  empty  titles,  write  Ciceronian  Latin  on  any  subject, 
no  matter  how  frivolous,  and  make  correct  speeches  on 
any  occasion.  And  the  same  imitative  propensity  imposed 
this  belief  on  successive  generations,  and  made  the  Romans 
an  easy  prey  to  the  barbarians  of  the  North. 

The  Teacher  and  the  Source  of  the  Ideals  of  the  PupiL  — 

The  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter,  then,  is  that  as  the 
teacher  reaches  the  intellect  of  his  pupils  through  his  own 
intellect,  so  he  reaches  their  emotions  through  his  own 
emotions.  Now  it  is  our  emotional  nature  —  what  we 
love  —  that  gives  us  our  ideals.  Only,  therefore,  as  a 
teacher  really  so  loves  a  rational  life  as  to  make  his  love 
for  it  the  determining  principle  of  his  own  life  will  he  be 
able  to  develop  a  love  for  the  same  kind  of  life  in  his 
pupils. 

From  this  it  is  evident  that  the  teacher  is  the  great 


SCHOOL   MANAGEMENT.  295 

educative  factor  in  the  school.  We  have  discussed  at 
great  length  the  educational  values  of  the  various  school 
subjects:  and  now  it  appears  that  what  in  the  school  has 
greatest  educational  value  is  a  subject  not  on  the  pro- 
gramme —  the  teacher ;  also,  that  what  in  the  teacher 
touches  most  directly  and  powerfully  the  deepest  springs 
of  the  child's  life  is  not  his  knowledge  or  his  reasoning 
power,  but  his  effective  ideals — those  ideals  that  determine 
the  course  of  his  life.  If  the  regulations  of  the  school 
and  his  own  life  in  it  spring  from  his  desire  to  live  a  truly 
rational  life,  then  indeed  is  he  exerting  upon  his  pupils  an 
influence  of  incalculable  value.  Some  of  his  demands  will 
be  certain  to  be  unwise,  some  of  his  opinions  will  be 
erroneous.  For  purity  of  motive  is  no  guarantee  of 
immunity  from  error.  But  if  his  motives  are  pure,  his 
ideal  untainted  by  selfishness,  mere  errors  of  intellect  will 
not  weaken  the  influence  exerted  by  his  ideal. 

There  emerge,  then,  from  our  study  of  school  govern- 
ment two  conclusions  :  its  aim  is  the  development  of  the 
pupil's  higher  self  and  the  subordination  of  the  lower  self 
to  it ;  the  chief  means  to  this  end,  so  far  as  the  school  is 
concerned,  is  such  a  subordination  of  .the  lower  to  the 
higher  self  in  the  life  of  the  teacher. 

QUESTIONS   ON   THE   TEXT. 

1.  What  is  the  object  of  discipline? 

2.  "  Anarchy  is  the  apotheosis  of  the  private  self."    Explain. 

3.  What  is  the  underlying  principle  of  anarchy  ? 

4.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  private  and  the  social  self? 

5.  "  Spirit  is  the  natural  ally  of  reason."    Explain. 

6.  What  do  you  understand  by  a  rational  life  ? 

7.  State  clearly  the  two  ways  in  which  a  child  may  come  to  love  a 
rational  life. 


296  A   BROADER   ELEMENTARY   EDUCATION. 

8.  Show  how  imitation  was  a  factor  in  Roman  education. 

9.  Show  that  the  teacher  is  the  great  educative  factor  in  the 
school. 

10.  What  two  conclusions  emerge  from  our  study  of  school  govern- 
ment? 

SUGGESTIVE    QUESTIONS. 

1.  What  is  the  creed  of  the  anarchists? 

2.  In  what  sense  is  it  true  that  our  mental  life  begins  with  anar- 
chistic impulses  ? 

3.  State  and  define  the  two  kinds  of  imitation  discussed  in  earlier 
chapters. 

4.  Which  of  the  two  has  the  more  important  bearing  on  the  con- 
clusions of  this  chapter,  and  why  ? 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

THE   SMALL   HIGH    SCHOOL. 

Having  completed  our  survey  of  elementary  education, 
this  book  might  fitly  end.  But  the  small  high  school  — 
the  high  school  whose  faculty  consists  of  a  principal  and 
one  or  two  assistants  —  is  so  closely  connected  with  the 
elementary  school  that  it  may  almost  be  considered  as 
forming  an  integral  part  of  it.  It  may  not,  therefore,  be 
deemed  inappropriate  to  make  a  few  general  remarks  in 
relation  thereto. 

The  General  Principle  upon  which  the  Proper  Work  of 

the  Small  High  School  Depends The  general   principle 

which  should  determine  all  its  work  will  hardly  be  called 
in  question  :  inasmuch  as  it  is  the  finishing  school  of  the 
vast  majority  of  its  students,  its  course  of  study  should  be 
such  as  to  give  to  those  who  are  to  go  no  farther  the 
utmost  possible  benefit.  To  require  the  many  to  study 
Latin,  for  example,  because  it  will  be  of  service  to  the  few 
who  go  to  college,  to  deprive  the  many  of  the  opportunity 
of  studying  political  economy  because  the  few  can  study 
it  at  better  advantage  in  college,  is  to  sacrifice  the  interests 
of  the  many  to  those  of  the  few.  But  this  is  imperatively 
forbidden  by  our  general  principle,  which  requires  us  to  do 
in  the  high  school  all  those  things  that  will  promote  the 
interests  of  the  many,  and  to  leave  undone  nothing  that 
will  give  them  a  better  education. 

297 


298     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

The  Large  High  School  not  a  Model  for  the  Small 
High  School.  —  While  this  general  principle  determines 
absolutely  and  without  qualification  the  work  of  the  small 
high  school,  it  does  not  so  determine  the  work  of  the  large 
high  school.  The  high  school  in  the  large  cities  and 
towns  may  have  a  faculty  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  those 
who  are  going  to  college,  as  well  as  for  those  who  are  not. 
But  our  general  principle  forbids  the  school  to  lay  less 
emphasis  upon  the  course  arranged  for  the  many  than 
upon  that  designed  for  the  few.  If,  for  example,  it  takes 
less  pains  to  get  thoroughly  trained  teachers  for  the  former 
course  than  for  the  latter,  it  is  false  to  the  best  interests 
of  the  community  that  supports  it. 

It  follows  from  this  that  in  arranging  its  course  of  study 
the  small  high  school  cannot  take  the  large  high  school  as 
a  model.  The  latter,  by  means  of  its  larger  resources, 
can  make  provision  for  the  students  who  are  going  to  col- 
lege as  well  as  for  those  who  are  not ;  the  former  can  only 
make  provision  for  those  whose  education  is  not  to 
extend  beyond  the  high  school.  That  which  will  promote 
the  interests  of  the  many,  therefore,  and  that  alone,  must 
determine  the  work  of  the  school. 

The  Report  of  the  Committee  of  Ten  on  the  Identity 
of  the  Needs  of  Those  Who  Are  and  Those  Who  Are  Not 
Going  to  College.  —  I  am  aware,  of  course,  that  in  postulat- 
ing a  difference  between  the  needs  of  the  two  classes  of 
students,  I  am  putting  myself  in  a  position  of  antagonism  to 
very  formidable  authority.  The  body  of  experts  known  as 
the  Committee  of  Ten  unanimously  decided  that  the  needs 
of  the  two  classes  of  students  are  identical.  But  in  spite 
of  any  authority  we  must  go  whither  the  argument  leads  us. 


THE   SMALL   HIGH   SCHOOL.  a^g 

The  Small  High  School  Should  Teach  (i)  Political 
Economy.  —  What  is  the  argument  ?  That  every  Ameri- 
can citizen  ought  to  be  acquainted  with  at  least  the 
elements  of  political  economy.  Since  the  days  of  Recon- 
struction we  have  not  had  a  presidential  campaign  in 
which  the  issue  has  not  been  either  wholly  or  partly  eco- 
nomic. Shall  we  have  a  high  or  a  low  protective  tariff  ? 
Shall  we  have  the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver  at 
the  ratio  of  sixteen  to  one  or  shall  we  have  the  gold  stan- 
dard ?  Shall  legislation  aim  to  control  or  destroy  trusts  ? 
These  are  some  of  the  questions  upon  which  Americans 
have  been  expressing  opinions  at  the  polls  for  the  last 
twenty-five  years.  Evidently  no  one  has  a  right  to  opin- 
ions upon  such  questions  who  has  not  an  acquaintance 
with  at  least  the  elements  of  political  economy.  But 
political  economy  is  a  difficult  subject,  much  too  difficult 
for  the  elementary  school  —  so  difficult  that  it  is  wise  to 
postpone  the  study  of  it  until  the  college  period  if  the 
education  of  the  student  is  to  continue  beyond  the  high 
school.  But  if  he  is  not  going  to  college,  surely  the  high 
school  ought  to  impart  the  rudiments  of  the  science.  The 
high  school  ought  to  do  what  it  can  to  enable  him  to 
distinguish  between  the  demagogic  utterances  of  profes- 
sional politicians  and  the  dehberate  judgments  of  trained 
statesmen. 

(2)  American  History.  —  The  same  argument  may  be 
made  in  reference  to  American  history.  The  American 
citizen  ought  to  know  more  about  it  than  he  can  learn  in 
the  elementary  or  high  school,  more  than  his  mind  will 
enable  him  to  grasp  in  either  of  those  stages  of  his  de- 
velopment.   .The  well-being  of  the  country  at  important 


300     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

crises  of  its  history  may  easily  be  conceived  to  depend  on 
whether  public  opinion  is  guided  by  a  fundamental  knowl- 
edge of  American  history.  Now  because  of  the  difficulty 
of  the  subject,  the  intending  college  student  may  perhaps 
postpone  the  further  study  of  it  until  he  enters  college. 
But  shall  the  student  whose  education  closes  with  the  high 
school  have  no  opportunity  there  to  employ  his  maturer 
powers  in  enlarging  his  grasp  of  the  subject  ? 

But  (3)  Not  a  Foreign  Language.  —  Again,  there  is  a 
universal  consensus  of  opinion  to  the  effect  that  a  college 
student  should  devote  a  part  of  his  time  to  the  study  of 
foreign  languages.  And  we  have  given  reasons  for  believ- 
ing that  the  study  of  modern  languages  may  be  begun  to 
advantage  quite  early  in  the  elementary  school.  There 
can,  therefore,  be  no  doubt  that  the  prevalent  practice  of 
requiring  the  high-school  student  who  is  going  to  college 
to  give  some  time  to  the  study  of  foreign  languages  is 
wise. 

But  how  about  the  student  who  is  not  going  to  college  ? 
Is  it  worth  his  while  to  expend  his  time  and  energy  in 
equipping  himself  with  expensive  tools  that  he  will  never 
use  ?  "  O,  but  the  literature  to  which  the  foreign  language 
will  give  him  access  !  '*  The  literature  ?  Were  it  not  for 
the  ability  and  character  of  the  men  who  make  this  argu- 
ment one  would  not  think  it  serious.  Has  the  English 
language  no  literature?  Have  we  not  a  Shakspere,  a 
Milton,  a  Wordsworth,  a  Burns,  a  Lowell,  a  Hawthorne, 
an  Emerson  ?  Does  the  boy  who  learns  with  great  labor 
to  read  a  page  of  Vergil  in  an  hour  really  amuse  himself 
with  Latin  literature  ?  Does  the  German  or  French  stu- 
dent instruct  himself  by  reading  Goethe  or  Moliire  ?     If 


THE  SMALL  HIGH   SCHOOL. 


301 


the  men  who  make  this  argument  would  leave  their 
studies  once  in  a  while,  if  they  would  spend  a  little  time  in 
the  world,  there  would  be  some  hope  of  their  learning  that 
not  one  per  cent  of  the  high-school  students  who  do  not 
go  to  college  ever  read  one  line  of  a  foreign  language  after 
they  lay  down  their  text -books.  "  But  the  discipline  !  " 
It  must  be  admitted  that  the  student  of  a  foreign  language 
does  get  some  discipline  from  his  work.  The  question  is 
whether  he  gets  enough  to  pay  him  for  what  it  costs, 
whether  he  gets  enough  to  compensate  him  for  the  inevi- 
table ignorance  of  important  subjects  which  it  deprives 
him  of  the  opportunity  of  studying,  whether  it  is  a  satis- 
factory substitute  for  the  discipline  which  he  might  get 
from  the  study  of  subjects  which  have  a  vital  bearing  on 
life. 

We  are  dealing  here  with  concepts  which  do  not  admit 
of  quantitative  statement.  We  cannot  say  that  the  bene- 
fits to  be  derived  from  the  study  of  foreign  languages  con- 
sist of  69  parts  of  a  given  unit,  while  those  of  the  studies 
which  it  displaces  consist  of  1191.  Whatever  opinion  any 
student  of  the  subject  may  form  of  it,  the  nature  of  the 
argument  will  not  permit  us  to  say  to  him,  "  Your  con- 
clusion is  demonstrably  incorrect."  But  the  conception 
which  the  author  of  this  book  has  of  the  vital  relation 
between  the  study  of  purely  English  subjects  and  rational 
living  leaves  him,  at  any  rate,  in  no  doubt  as  to  the 
true  conclusion.  For  all  these  reasons,  therefore,  we 
hold  that  the  needs  of  the  two  classes  of  students  are  dif- 
ferent. 

The  Course  of  Study  of  the  Small  High  School  to  be 
Determined  in  Part  by  the  Capacity  of  its  Teachers  and  by 


302     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

its  Equipment.  —  What,  then,  should  be  the  character  of 
the  course  of  study  of  the  small  high  school  ?  This  qurts- 
tion  cannot  be  answered  simply  by  considering  the  needs 
of  the  student.  We  must  take  account,  as  well,  of  the 
capacities  of  his  teachers,  and  of  the  equipment  of  the 
school.  It  is  impossible,  for  example,  to  teach  physics  and 
chemistry  properly  without  a  laboratory.  If,  therefore,  the 
community  is  unable  to  provide  but  one  laboratory,  but 
one  of  these  subjects  should  be  taught.  It  is  impossible, 
also,  for  one  man  to  teach  well  a  half-dozen  widely  different 
subjects.  The  small  high  school  is  bound,  therefore,  to 
confine  itself  to  such  a  range  of  subjects  as  its  small  fac- 
ulty may  reasonably  be  expected  to  teach  effectively. 

English  and  American  History  should  be  Substituted  for 
General  History.  —  The  application  of  this  principle  ex- 
cludes general  history.  The  study  of  that  subject  in  any 
high  school  which  has  not  an  ample  library  and  which  does 
not  admit  of  a  high  degree  of  specialization  on  the  part  of 
its  teachers  is  sure  to  degenerate  into  a  mere  memorizing 
of  dates  and  disconnected  events.  The  time  which  the 
small  high  school  gives  to  the  study  of  history  should  be 
devoted  to  the  history  of  England  and  that  of  the  United 
States.  These  two  subjects  are  so  closely  related  that 
they  may  almost  be  said  to  form  a  single  whole.  And  if 
time  enough  is  given  to  the  study  of  them  —  at  least  a 
year  should  be  allotted  to  each — the  ambitious  teacher 
can  make  his  capable  students  acquainted  with  the  princi- 
ples that  underlie  the  development  of  the  English  and 
American  peoples.  The  teacher  of  history  should  also 
give  instruction  in  political  economy,  since  each  of  these 
subjects  may  be  made  to  throw  light  on  the  other. 


THE  SMALL  HIGH  SCHOOL.         303 

Summary  of  the  Course  of  Study.  —  Some  mathematics 
should  be  taught  in  the  small  high  school.  But  for  rea- 
sons already  stated  a  number  of  times  —  that  the  reason- 
ing power  developed  by  the  study  of  mathematics  is  chiefly 
of  use  in  the  further  study  of  that  subject  —  the  aim  of  the 
small  high  school  should  be  to  diminish  rather  than  in- 
crease the  amount  of  time  usually  given  to  it.  The  school 
should  occupy  itself  chiefly  with  such  sciences  as  its  appli- 
ances make  it  possible  to  teach  in  the  most  effective  way  : 
English  and  American  history,  political  economy,  and  liter- 
ature. The  capable  student  who  spends  three  or  four 
years  on  these  subjects  can  study  them  in  such  a  way  as 
to  make  them  really  educative.  History  will  enlarge  his 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  will  give  him  an  inspiring 
acquaintance  with  the  great  men  of  the  English-speaking 
peoples,  and  a  vivid  appreciation  of  the  struggles  which 
the  race  has  undergone  in  order  to  secure  the  blessings 
of  a  free,  constitutional  government.  Political  economy 
will  make  him  acquainted  with  some  of  the  laws  that 
govern  men  in  their  economic  relations.  His  study  of 
literature  will  introduce  him  to  those  ideals  of  life  which 
are  embodied  in  the  literatures  of  England  and  America, 
will  teach  him  that  there  are  moral  laws  upon  the  observ- 
ance of  which  human  welfare  depends,  will  develop  in  him 
a  taste  for  good  reading  which  will  be  a  permanent  posses- 
sion and  a  continual  solace.  His  study  of  science  will 
make  him  realize  that  behind  the  shifting,  changing  things 
of  sense  there  are  abiding  realities,  and  that  the  material 
welfare  of  the  race  depends  upon  taking  account  of  them. 
In  a  word,  the  intelligent,  appreciative  study  of  such 
subjects  is  calculated  to  touch  the  mind  of  the  student 
on  every  side.     It  enlarges  his  knowledge  of  principles^ 


304     A  BROADER  ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION. 

develops  his  reasoning  power,  purifies  and  elevates  his 
ideals.  By  helping  the  student  to  realize  what  the  really 
good  and  great  things  of  life  are,  and  what  methods  he 
must  employ  to  reach  them,  the  small  high  school  may 
teach  directly  the  noblest  of  all  arts  —  the  art  of  living. 


QUESTIONS   ON   THE   TEXT. 

1.  What  is  meant  by  the  small  high  school? 

2.  Upon  what  principle  does  its  work  depend  ? 

3.  Why  may  not  the  large  high  school  be  taken  as  a  model  for  the 
small  one  ? 

4.  Why  should  the  small  high  school  teach  political  economy  ? 

5.  Why  should  it  teach  American  history  ? 

6.  Why  should  it  not  teach  a  foreign  language? 

7.  State  and  answer  the  arguments  that  are  urged  to  show  that 
students  who  are  not  going  to  college  should  study  a  foreign  language. 

8.  What  have  the  capacity  of  teachers  and  the  equipment  of  the 
school  to  do  with  determining  the  course  of  study  of  the  small  high 
school ? 

9.  Why  should  not  the  small  high  school  tekch  general  history? 
10.   Summarize  the  course  of  study  of  the  small  high  school,  and 

enumerate  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  it. 

SUGGESTIVE   QUESTIONS. 

1.  Have  you  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  any  small  high  school, 
and,  if  so,  does  that  school  in  your  opinion  illustrate  what  the  text 
says  of  the  necessary  character  of  the  study  of  general  history  therein  ? 

2.  Are  you  acquainted  with  a  single  high-school  graduate  who, 
without  having  gone  to  college,  instructs  and  amuses  himself  by  read- 
ing the  literature  of  a  foreign  language  ? 

3.  Do  you  believe  that  any  one  can  form  an  intelligent  opinion  as 
to  how  he  ought  to  vote  if  he  has  no  knowledge  of  political  economy? 

4.  Do  you  accept  the  conclusions  of  this  chapter  ?  If  not,  state 
the  reasons  why  you  do  not. 

$.  If  you  do  accept  them,  what  obstacle  prevents  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  small  high  schools  of  your  community  along  the  proposed 
lines?  

/      ^      OF  THE  \ 

UNivERsirr  j 


( 


for  your  £ibrar9 


The  Worth  of  Words  (BeU) fl.25 

How  to  Study  Literature  (Heydrick)       ...  .75 

A  Brief  Outline  of  the  Books  I  Have  Read       .        .  .25 

How  Nature  Study  Should  Be  Taught  (Bigelow)    -  1. 00 

Kature  Study  Lessons  (Crawford)           -       -       -  .75 
Lessons  on  Manners — Morals  (Dewey)             -        each  .75 

Character  (Vamum)        -        -        -        -        -        -  1.50 

The  Man  Who  Pleases  and  the  Woman  Who  Charms  .75 

Who's  Who  in  Mythology .75 

Who's  Who  in  History .75 

Seeley»s  The  Foundations  of  Education           -       -  1. 00 

Seeley's  A  New  School  Management        -        -        -  L25 

Gordy's  A  Broader  Elementary  Education       -        -  1.25 

The  20th  Century  Educational  Problems          -        -  1. 00 

The  Science  of  Study  (Moore)         -        -       -       -  1. 00 

Cook's  Psychology  {A  Simplified  Exposition)          -  1.25 

Stout's  The  Groundwork  of  Psychology          -       -  L25 

Stout's  Manual  of  Psychology         -       -       -       -  1 .50 

Mackenzie's  Manual  of  Ethics           -        -        -        -  1.50 

How  to  Become  Quick  at  Figures    -        -        »       -  l.OO 

A  Dictionary  of  Synonyms  and  Antonyms       -        -  .50 

Common  Errors  in  Writing  and  Speaking        -        -  .50 

A,  B,  C  of  Electricity --  .50 

Fifty  Profitable  Occupations     -        -       -        -        -  1.00 

HINDS,  NOBLE  &  ELDREDGE 

as .33.35  West  15th  Street,                    New  York  CHf 


The  Science  o{  Study.  By  James  G.  Moore.  iUOO.  /^ew. 

School  Management.    By  Dr.  Levi  Seeley.   $J,25.  JVew, 

The  Foundations  of  Education.  By  Dr.  Levi  Seeley. 
author  of  '*  History  of  Education."  >In  this  hook  the 
author,  an  able  teacher  and  superintendent  of  long 
experience,  recounts  from  his  experience  for  the  bene- 
fit of  teachers,  those  very  many  things,  the  ayoiding 
which  or  the  doing  which,  as  the  case  may  be,  m;  kes 
for  failure  or  success  accordingly.     $I.OO.    Recent, 

Gof  dy's  A  Broader  Elementary  Education.  By  the  author 
of  New  Psychology,  $}«25.    Questions  on  each  chapter, 

Gofdy'f  New  Psychology.  Familiar  talks  to  teachers 
and  parents  on  how  to  observe  the  child-mind. 
Questions  on  each  Lesson.     $)*25.    37th   thousand! 

Methods  of  Teaching  Gymnastics.    Anderson,    $)*25. 

Best  Methods  of  Teaching  in  Coun^  Schools.     $(.25. 

200  Lessons  Outlined  in  Arithmetic,  Geography, 
Grammar,  United  States  History,  Physiology.  A 
splendid  help  for  busy,  time-pressed  teachers,     $).25. 

Mistakes  of  Teachers  corrected  by  common  sense  (the 
famous  Preston  Papers),        Solves   difficulties  not 
explained  in   textbooks,   which  daily 
perplex  the  conscientious  teacher. 
New  Enlarged  Edition— fourth  large 
printing,     A  veritable  hit.     $K00. 

Pagers  Theory  and  Practice  <rf  Teaching. 

With  Questions  and  Answers.    Paper, 
50c.  Cloth,  $K   The  teachers*  standby, 

Roark's  Outline  of  Pedagogy.  A  Working 

Manual.     Aptly  and  briefly  described 

as  an  indispensable  tool  for  ' '  teachers 

in  the  trenches."   Interleaved  for  notes.    75  cents. 
Stout's  Manual  of  Psychology.     Introduced  in  its  first 

year    into    more    than    fourscore  of    colleges    and 

universities  in  this  country  and  in  Canada.       $X.50. 
Stout's  Groundwork  of  Psychology.    $J.25.    New. 
Ti^  Perceptionalist.      Hamilton's  Mental  Science.       By 

special  typographical  arrangement  adapted  to  either 

a  longer  or  shorter  course.     $2.00. 

Mackenzie's  Manual  of  Ethics.  The  most  successful 
text-book  on  ethics  ever  published.  Adopted  and 
used  in  over  two  hundred  Colleges,  Universities  and 
Normal  Schools.     New,  Fourth  Edition.       $J^» 

Continental  Copy  Boots*  Numbers  i  to  7.  75  cents  dozen. 


^W^^A 


How  to  Become  Qtiick  at  Figures.  Enlarged  Edition.  $J.OO* 

How  to  Prepare  for  a  Civil  Service  Examination,  with 
recent  Examination    Questions    and 
the  Answers*      560    pages.       $2*00*       j 
Abridged  Edition,  without  Questions 
and  Answers,     50  cents* 

Graig^s  G>mmon  School  Questions  with 
Answers,    Enlarged  Edition.    $)«50. 


Henry's  High    School   Questions,    with 
Answers.     $1«50* 

Sherrill's  New  Normal  Questions*  with 
Answers.     $)30* 

Quitzism  and  lis  Key.  (Soathwick.)  $I«00. 

SOOl  Questions  and  Answers  Series.    Eleven    Volumes, 
until  recently  published  by  the  b.  b.  co.  ,  each  50  cts. 
Theory  and  Practice  Teaching.     Revised, 
United  States  History.     Revised. 
General  History.     Revised, 
Geography.     Revised. 
English  Grammar.     Revised, 

Reading  and  Orthography.     Revised,  \ 

Physiology  and  Hygiene.     Revised, 
Botany.     New. 
Natural  Philosophy.     New, 
Arithmetic.     Revised. 
Text  Examples  in  Arith.,  with  Answers.     Revised. 

Moritz's  1000  Questions.  For  Entrance  Examinations. 
N.  Y.  High  Schools,  Normal  College,  College  of  City 
of  N.  Y.,  St.  Francis  Xavier  College,  West  Point, 
Annapolis,  and  Civil  Service.     Paper.     30  cents. 

Answers  to  same.    Paper.    50  cents. 

Recent  Entrance  Examination  Questions.  For  the  New 
York  Normal  College,  the  College  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  St,  Francis  Xavier  College,  Columbia 
College,  the  High  Schools,  Regents'  Examinations. 
West  Point,Annapolis,the  Civil  Service.  Paper.  30cts. 

Answers  to  Same.    Paper.    50  cents. 

20th  Century  Educational  Problems.  By  President  Millar 
of  Hendrix  College,     A  timely  discussion,     ^UOO. 


How  to  Study  Ltterattifc.    A  novel,  a  poem,  a  history,  a 
biography,  a  drama,  an  oration,  a  sermon,  or  any 
other  literary  production,  if  read  or  studied  as  this  book 
tells  one  how  to  read  and  study,  becomes  a  subject 
which  one  can  discuss  or  write  about  in  a  thoroughly 
intelligent  and  comprehensive  way.     Enables  you  to 
talk  about  a,  book  as  if  you  had  really  sizgd  it  up 
completely.      Just  the  thing  for  literary  societies* 
reading  circles,   the  casual  reader,  as  well  as  for 
teacher  and  pupil ;  also  for  any  one  who  desires  to 
retain  a  symmetrical  impression  of  the  books  he  reads. 
Five  editions  in  first  five  months,     75  cents*    New, 
Rhetoric*    A  new  textbook.     By  M.  L.  Radford.     $J,00* 
Who's  Vho  in  Mytholc^?      looo  mythological  char- 
acters   briefly    described.       Identities    and    locates 
instanter  every  god  and  goddess,  hero  and  myth  that 
are    likely   to  be  broached  cither  in  conversation, 
sermon,  song,  drama,  painting  or  statuary.     75  cents* 
Who's  Who  in  History?     looo  classical  characters  and 
allusions    briefly    explained.       Locates    the    places* 
identifies  the  persons,  describes  the  things,  which  are 
constantly  alluded  to  in  literature,  on  the  rostrum  and 
platform,  in  sermons,  in  paintings,  in  sculpture  and 
m  conversation.     75  cents* 
What   Shall  I  Do?    50  protiUble  occupations.     $|,00» 
Going  to  G)ncgc*     Says  The  Evangelist :     **  Glows  with 
the  enthusiasm  of  a  high  ideal.     We  wish  it  could  be 
in   the   library   of  every  h:^h  school,  seminary,  and 
academy  in  the  land."     Inspiring!    50  cents* 
The  Scholar's  A  B  C  of  Electricity*    Can  you  explain  the 
simple  phenomena  of  electricity  ?   Do  you  hate  to  ap- 
pear ignorant   of    the  very   simplest  facts    regard- 
ing the  telephone,  the  telegraph,  the  electric  light,  the 
dynamo,  the  trolley?    This  book  states  the  facts  in 
clear  words  devoid  of  technicalities,  and  in  entertain- 
ing style.     No  need  to  study  or  commit  to  memory; 
just  to  read  it  is  to  understand.    50  cents* 
Lessons  on  Practical  Stsbjects*  Of  public  interest.  50  cents* 
Lenons  on  Manners*    Mrs.  Dewey.     75  cents* 
Lessons  on  Morals*    Mrs.  Dewey.     75  cents. 
The  Virtues  and  their  Reasons*     Every-day  ethics  for 
school  and  home.  Guide  for  parent  and  teacher.  $1*00* 
Character  Building*    Inspiring  suggestions.     $K00* 
Bookke»ing  Blaiu^  at  30  cents  per  set.     Five  blank  books 
to  the  set.     Adapted  for  use  with  any  text-book» 
— Elem. ,  Practical,  or  Com.  School.   Used  everywhere, 
Bookkecfios  and  Sdeoc^  of  Ac90«&li?  R^btrttm*  ^1^ 


The  Voftfc  of  Vofds.    By  Ralcy  Hasted  Bell.     {Library 

Edition,  $J^»)    School  Edition,  75  cents* 

How  to  Use  the  Voice  in  Reading  and  Speaking.     By 

Ed.  Amherst  Ott,  head  of  the  School  of  Oratory, 

Drake  University.     Suitable  for  class  work.     $S«25* 

How  to  Gesture.    By  Professor  Ott.    Revised  ediU   $1*00* 

Ten   "Weeks'    G)Ufse    in    Elocution.     With  numerous 

selections  for  illustration  and  practice.     $(.25* 
Fenno's  Science  and  Art  of  Elocution*    Standard.     $1*25* 
New  Parliamentary  Manual*      By  Edmond  Palmer,  A.  B. 
Designed  to  be  used  both  as  a  manual  at  meetings 
and  as  a  textbook  in  schools  and  colleges.     The  spe- 
cial feature  of  this  book  is  the  new  and  original  table 
enabling  one  to  decide  at  a  glance  any  parliamentary 
question.     75  cents*     Wholly  new. 
How  to  Organize  and  Conduct  a  Meeting*    75  cents* 
Likes  and  Opposites*     Synonyms  and  Opposites.      To 
have  at  one's  command  a  variety  of  equivalent  words 
and  their  opposites  is  to  possess  an  incalculable  ad- 
vantage both  in  writing  and  speaking.    50  cents* 
Letter  Writing*     Rules  for  correct  correspondence.  75  cts* 
Punctuation  Mastered  in  Twelve  Lessons* 

Paper.     25  cents* 
Punctuation*    Hinds  &  Noble*s  new  Man- 
ual.    Paper,  25  cents* 
New   Speller*      Hinds  &    Noble's    new 
graded  list  of  5,000  words  which  one 
iTiMj/know  how  to  spell.    Useful,  25c. 
Bad  English*    Humiliating  *  *  breaks  "  cor- 
rected.    Paper.     30  cents* 
G>mnion  Errors  in  Writing  and  Speaking. 
50  cents*    Invaluable  vade  mecum, 
Gmiposition    Writing    Made    Easy*      Very    successful. 
Five  grades,  viz.  :  A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  20  cents  each.     All 
five  for  75  cents*     Arranged  on  separate  cards. 
1000  Competition  Subjects*    Paper.    25  cents* 
Orthography    and    Orthoepy*      By  Isaac  W.   dinger. 

Adapted  for  class  use.  Boards.  50  cents* 
Complete  Class  Record-Book*  Hinds  &  Noble's  new 
register,  with  several  new  and  very  useful  features. 
Twenty  weeks.  Arranged  by  John  J.  Quinn.  50  cents* 
Smithes  New  Class  Register*  Long  the  SUndard.  50  cts. 
Manual  Training  Class  Register*  By  J.  J.  Quinn.  75c* 
Smith's  New  Astronomy*  llius.  Quarto.  Boards,  90  cts. 
Coon's  Civil  Government  For  N.  Y.  State.  75  cenH. 
Constitution  of  U.  S.  in  Eng.,  Ger..  Fr,   Pa,  25c*  Clo.  50^;* 


OldiofUtrics  i  The  Claisle  Series.  Half  morocco.  Espe- 
daily  planned  for  students  and  teachers  in  colleges 
and  high  schools.  Up  to  the  times  in  point  of 
contents,  authoritative  while  modern  as  regards 
scholarship,  instantly  accessible  in  respect  to  arrange- 
ment, of  best  quality  as  to  typography  and  paper, 
and  in  a  binding  at  once  elegant  and  durable.  8x5>^  in. 
French-English    and    English-French   Dictionary, 

1 122  pages.     $2«00* 
German-English  and  English-German  Dictionary, 

1 1 12  pages.    $2*00* 
Latin-English  and   English-Latin  Dictionary,  941 

pages.     $2*00* 
Greek-English    and     English-Greek     Dictionary, 

1056  pages.     $2,00* 
English-Greek  Dictionary.     Price  $1.00. 

Dktiofiaries:    The    Handy   Series*      "Scholarship 

modem  and  accurate;    and  really  beautiful  print." 

Pocket  Edition. 

Spanish-English  and  Eng.-Span.,  474 pages.  $1.00. 

Italian-English  and  Eng.-Ital.,  428  pages.     $1.00. 

New  Testament  Lexicon.     Entirely  new  and 

up-to-date.      With  a  fine  presentation  of  the 

Synonyms  of  the  Greek  Testament,     $1.00. 

LWdell  &  Scotfs  Abridged  Greek  Lexicon*  With  new 
Appendix  of  Proper  ard  Geographical  names.  $)*20* 

White's  Latin-English  Dictionary*    $J*20* 

White's  English-Latin  Dictionary*    $J20. 

White's  Latin-English  and  Eng.-Lat*  Dictionary.    $2.25. 

Casserly's  Latin  Prosody.    New  Edition.     60  cents. 

Brooks'  Historia  Saaa^  with  First  Latin  Lessons.  Revised, 
with  Vocabulary,  Price  50  cts.  This  justly  popular 
volume  besides  the  Epitome  Historise  Sacrae,  the 
Notes,  and  the  Vocabulary,  contains  100  pages  of 
elementary  Latin  Lessons,  enabling  the  teacher  to 
carry  the  pupil  quickly  and  in  easy  steps  over  the 
ground  preparatory  to  the  Epitome  Historise  Sacrse. 

Brooks'  First  Lessons  in  Greeks  with  Lexicon.  Revised 
Edition.  Covering  sufficient  ground  to  enable  the 
student  to  read  the  New  Testament  in  the  Greek.    50c. 

Brooks'  New  Virgil's  Aeneid,  w/M  Lexicon,  Revised. 
Notes,  Metrical  Index,  Map.    With  Questions,  $S.50* 

Brooks'  New  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  with  Lexicon, 
Expurgated  for  mixed  classes.  ^x'Ccl  Questions ^  $).50« 


Handy  LHeral  Translations*  Cloth,  pockeU  50  ch*  per  voL 

**  To  one  who  is  reading  ike  Classics ,  a  literal 
translation  is  a  convenient  and  legitimate  help: 
every  well  informed  person  will  read  the  Classics 
either  in  the  original  or  in  a  translation.*^ 
Eighty-nine  volumes,  viz.  :  (Interlinear s  other  page). 

Casar's  Gallic  War.     The  Seven  Books.     (For  Book  I  trans- 
lated and  comv>\t\.t\y  parsed^  see  other  page.) 

Casar's  Civile  ax, 

Catullus. 

Cicero's  Brutus. 

Cicero's  Defense  of  Roscius. 

Cicero  De  Officiis. 

Cicero  On  Old  Age  and  Friendship. 

Cicero  On  Oratory. 

Cicero  On  The  Nature  of  The  Gods. 

Cicero's  Orations.     Four  vs.  Catiline^  and  others,      (For 
Orations  I,  II,  translated  and  parsed,  see  other  page.) 

Cicero's  Select  Letters. 

Cicero's  Tusculan  Disputations. 

Cornelius  Nepos»  complete, 

Eutropius. 

Horace,  complete. 

Juvenar  s  Satires,  eompleiem 

Livy,  Books  I  and  II. 

Livy,  Books  XXI  and  XXII, 

Lucretius,  in  preparation, 

Martial's  Epigrams  {paper), 

Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  complete  in  two  volume** 

Phaedrus'  Fables. 

Plautus'  Captivi,  and  Mostellaria. 

Plautus'  Pseudolus,  and  Miles  Gloriosus. 

Plautus'  Trinummus,  and  Menaechmi. 

Pliny's  Select  Letters,  complete  in  two  volume*. 

guintilian.  Books  X  and  XII. 
Oman  Life  in  Latin  Prose  and  Verse. 
Sallust's  Catiline,  and  the  Jugurthine  War. 
Seneca  On  Benefits. 
Tacitus'  Annals,  tke  First  Six  Books, 
Tacitus'  Germany  and  Agricola. 
Tacitus  On  Oratory, 
Terence  :  Andria,  Adelphi  and  Phormio, 
Terence :  Heautontimorumenos. 
Virgil's  iEneid,  the  First  Six  Books,  (For  ^<7<7>(  /  translated 

««</ completely  scanned  tLnd  Parsed,  see  other  page.) 
Vir^l's  Eclogues  and  Georgics. 
Vin  Romae. 

/Bschines  Against  Ctesiphon. 
Aschylus'  Prometheus  Bound ;  Seven  vs.  Thebes. 
JEschylus'  Agamemnon, 
Aristophanes^  Clouds. 
Aristophanes'  Birds,  and  Frogs. 
Demosthenes  On  the  Crown. 
Demosthenes'  Olynthiacs  and  Philippics. 
Euripides'  Alcestis,  and  Electra. 
Euripides'  Bacchantes,  and  Hercules  Furcns 
Euripides'  Hecuba  and  Andromache. 
Euripides*  Iphigenia  In  Aulis,  In  Tauris 
Euripides'  Medea. 
Herodotus,  Books  VI  and  VH, 
Herodotus,  Book  VIH. 


Homer's  Iliad,  the  First  Six  Books. 
Homer's  Odyssey,  the  First  Twelve  Books, 
Isocrates'  Panegyric,  in  preparation. 
Lucian's  Select  Dialogues,  two  volumes. 
Lvsias' Orations.     J  he  only  Translation  exianU 
Plato's  Apology,  Crito,  and  Phacdo. 
Plato's  Gorgias. 
Plato's  Laches  {paper). 
Plato's  Prougoras,  and  Euthyphron. 
Plato's  Republic. 

Sophocles'  GBdipus  Tyrannus,  Electra,  and  Antisone. 
Sophocles'  CEdipus  Coloneus. 
Thucydides,  complete  in  two  volumes. 

Xcnophon's  Anabasis,  the  First  Four  Books.  {Book  /,  trans- 
lated ««</ completely  parsed, /«/r<'/.    Sec  other  page.) 
Xenophon's  Cyropaedia,  complete  in  two  volumes. 
Xenophon's  Hellenica,  and  Symposium  (The  Banquet). 
Xenophon's  Memorabilia,  complete. 


Freytag's  Die  Joumalistcn  {paper), 

Gocthe^s  Egmont. 

Goethe's  Faust. 

Goethe's  Hermann  and  Dorothea. 

Goethe's  Iphigcnia  in  Tauris. 

Lessing's  Minna  ron  Bamhelm, 

Lcssing's  Nathan  The  Wise, 

Lessing's  Emilia  Galotti. 

Schiller's  Ballads. 

Schiller's  Der  NefFeals  Onkel. 

Schiller's  Maid  of  Orleans. 

Schiller's  Maria  Stuart. 

Schiller's  Wallenstein's  Death. 

Schiller's  Wallenstein's  Camp. 

Schiller's  William  Tell. 

Comeille's  The  Cid. 

Feuillet's  Romance  of  a  Poor  Voting  Man. 

Racine's  Athaiie. 

Completely  Parsed  Caesar^  Vifgi^  OottOptiCf  ether  pa^e. 
Beginners'  Caesar*    H.  D.  Cannon.     50  cents.    New. 
Shortest  Road  to  Caesar,    Successful  clcm'y  method.  75c» 
Caesar's  Idioms.  Complete,  with  Eng.  equivalents.  Pap.  25c« 
Cicero's  Idioms.  As  found  in  "Cicero's  Orations."  Pap.  25c, 
Beginners'  Latin  Book.    Hoch  &  Bert's.     Many  improve- 
ments over  other  books  for  beginners,  one  being  the 
diagram  to  illustrate  conditional  sentences.    $K00. 
Beginners'  Greek  Book.    I.   F.   Frisbee.     Complete  in 
itself.     Applies  the  principles  of  correct  teaching  to 
the  preparation  (in  one  year)  for  reading  Xenophon's 
Anabasis.     Fully  tested  in  many  schools,     %\2B* 
German  Texts*    With  footnotes  and  Vocabulary: 
W.  Tell.  Jungfrau  v.  Orleans,  Maria  Stuart,  Neffe  als 
Onkel,  Minna  v.  Bamhelm,  Nathan  der  Weise,  Emilia 
Galotti,  Herm.  und  Dorothea.  Eight  vols,  50ctl.  each^ 
Ideophonic  Texts.    Wilhehn  TeU,  Act  I.    JJ.OO. 


Interlinear  Trasslattons*    Classic  Series.    Cloth.    30  vol. 
umes.    $S*50  per  volume. 
Caesar's  Gallic  War.    Five  Books, 

Same,  Book  I,  Completely  Parsed.    See  beiaw, 
Cicero's    Orations.      Enlarged  Edition, 

Same,  Oration  1,  Completely  Parsed.    See  below. 
Same,  Oration  II,  Completely  Parsed.    See  below, 
Cicero  On  Old  Age  and  Friendship. 
Cornelius  Nepos. 
Horace,  complete, 
Liyy.    Books  XXI  and  XXII. 
Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  complete, 
Sallust's  Catiline,  and  Jugurthine  War. 
Virgil's  iEneid.     First  Six  Books^  Revised, 
Virgil's  iEneid.     Complete,  the  Twelve  Books, 

iEneid,  Book  I,  Completely  Parsed,  Scanned.  See  belsw, 
Virgil's  Eclogues,  Gtox^csand Last 6  Books  jEneid. 
Xenophon's  Anabasis. 
Xenophon's  Memorabilia. 
Homer's  Iliad,  First  Six  Jiooks,  Revised, 
Demosthenes  On  The  Crown. 
New  Testament,  Without  Notes;  complete  ed.  below. 
Completely  Parsed  Giesar*    Book  U    Each  page  bears 
interlinear  translation,    literal  translation,  parsing, 
grammatical  references.    The  long  vowels  are  indicated 
throughout,  both  in  the  Latin  text  part,  and  in  the 
parsing.     All  at  a  glance  without  turning  a  leaf.     An 
ideal  aid,  compact,  complete,  unique.    $)«50* 
Completely  Scanned-Parsed  Virgil's  Aeneid»  Bk*  U  Iden- 
tical in  plan,  scope,  and  arrangement  with  the  Parsed 
Casar,  while  being  scanned  as  well  zs  parsed,    $}«50* 
Completely  Parsed  Qcero,  L    The  First  Oration  against 
Catiline.  Same  plan  and  scope  as  Parsed  Casar,  $),50* 
Completely  Parsed  Qcerot  II*  The  Second  Oration  against 
Catiline.   Same  plan  as  above.    $)«50*  In  preparation. 
Completely  Parsed  Xenophon's  Anab*t  I*  $(«50*  In  prep. 
New  Testament  with  Notest  and  Lexicon*    Interlinear 
Greek'Eng, ,  with  King  James  Version  in  the  margins. 
New  edition  with  finely  discriminating  presentation 
of  the  Synonyms  of  the  Greek  Testament.     Cloth,  $4  ; 
half  leather,  $5  ;  Divinity  Circuit,  $6. 
Old  Testament^  Vol*  \.  Genesis  and  Exodus.  Interlinear 
Hebrew-Eng,,  with  Notes ;  King  James  Version  and 
Revised    Version  in  margins;    and   with    Hebrew 
alphabet  and  Tables  of  the  Hebrew  verb*     Cloth,  I4  f 
half  leather,  $5 ;  Divinity  Circuit,  $6.00. 
fflnds  &  Noble's  Hebrew  GfMnmar*   $)«OQt 


The  Best  Amcflcafl  Oration*  of  To-day.  $J Ji5.  -»  New, 
How  to  Attract  and  Hold  an  Audience.  Every  clergy- 
man, every  lawyer,  every  teacher,  every  man  or  woman 
occupying  an  official  position,  every  citizen  and  every 
youth  who  is  likely  ever  to  have  occasion  in  committee, 
or  in  public,  to  enlist  the  interest,  to  attract  and  hold 
the  attention  of  one  or  more  hearers,  and  convince 
them — every  person  who  ever  has  to,  or  is  likely  to 
have  to  '  'si>eak"  to  one  or  more  listeners  will  find  in 
our  new  book  a  clear,  concise,  complete  handbook 
which  will  enable  him  to  succeed!  ^th  edition.  $U00* 
Thorough,  concise,  methodical,  replete  with  common  sense, 
complete— these  words  describe  fitly  this  new  book;  and  in  his 
logical  method,  m  the  crystal-like  luciditjr  of  his  style,  in  his 
forceful,  incisive,  penetrating  mastery  of  his  subject,  the  author 
has  at  one  bound  placed  himself  on  a  plane  with  the  very  ablest 
teacher-authors  of  his  day.   Fourth  edition  within  its  first  year  t 

Commencement  Parts.  "Efforts"  for  all  occasions. 
Orations,  addresses,  valedictories,  salutatories,  class 
poems,  class  mottoes,  after-dinner 
speeches,  flag  days,  national  holidays, 
class-day  exercises.  Models  for  every 
possible  occasion  in  high-school  and 
college  career,  every  one  of  the  * 'ef- 
forts'* being  what  some  fellow  has 
stood  on  his  feet  and  actually  delivered 
on  a  similar  occasion — not  what  the 
compiler  would  say  if  he  should 
happen  to  be  called  on  for  an  ivy 
song  or  a  response  to  a  toast,  or  what 
not ;  but  what  the  fellow  himself,  when  his  turn 
came,  did  say  !  Invaluable,  indispensable  to  those 
preparing  any  kind  of  "effort."  Unique.  $t.50* 
Readings  from  the  Popular  Novels.  $L00.  New, 
New  Dialogtses  and  Flays.  Life-like  episodes  from 
popular  authors  like  Stevenson,  Crawford,  Mark 
Twain,  Dickens,  Scott,  in  the  form  of  simple  plays, 
with  every  detail  explained  as  to  dress,  make-up,  uten- 
sils, furniture,  etc.    For  schoolroom  or  parlor.  $).50s» 

A  Sotsthern  Speaker.  Selections  from  the  orations,  ad- 
dresses, and  writings  of  the  best  known  Southern  ora- 
tors. Southern  statesmen  and  authors.     $K00. 

Reading.  A  Well-PIanncd  Course.  $J.OO.  By  Caroline 
B.  Le  Row,  compiler  of  **  Pieces  for  Every  Occasion." 
There  has  long  been  wanted  a  book  of  new  selections 
ior  classes,  with  lessons  on  the  art  of  reading. 


College  Men^i  ^Minute  £>eclamatioas«  tJp-to-date 
selections  from  live  men  like  Chauncey 
Depew,  Hewitt,  Gladstone,  Cleveland, 
Presidents  Eliot  (Harvard),  and  Carter 
(Williams),  and  others.  New  material 
with  vitality  in  it  for  prize  speaking. 
Very  popular.     Ninth  edition.     $^«00* 

G>llefife  Malds^  3-Minute  Readings. 
Up-to-date  recitations  from  living  men 
and  women.  On  the  plan  of  the  popular 
College  Men's  3-minute  Declamations,  and 
on  the  same  high  plane,  '^th  edition,  $K(X)« 

Pieces  for  Prize  Speaking  Contests*  Volume  /.  Over 
one  hundred  pieces  that  have  actually  taken  prizes  in 
prize  speaking  contests,  ^th  edit.    Successful.  $X.25* 

Pieces  for  Prize  Speaking  Contests.  Vol,  II.  3d  ed.  $1.25. 

Pieces  for  Every  Occasion.  Including 
"special  days."  Something  new,  $1.25* 

Handy  Pieces  to  Speak.  Single  pieces  and 
dialogues.  Primary,  20  cts.  ;  Inter- 
mediate, 20  cts.;  Advanced,  20  cts. 
All  three  for  ^o  cts.  On  separate 
cards.     108  selections  in  all. 

Acme  Declamation  Book.  Single  pieces 
and  dialogues.  For  boys  and  girls  of 
all  ages ;  all  occasions.  Paper,  30  cts. ; 
cloth,    50   cts.      Many  editions  sold. 

Pros  and  Cons.  Complete  debates  of  the  affirmative 
and  negative  of  the  stirring  questions  of 
the  day.  A  decided  htt^  This  is  another 
book  invaluable  not  only  to  high-school 
and  college  students,  but  also  to  every 
other  person  who  aspires  to  converse 
engagingly  on  the  topics  of  the  day.  Our 
foreign  policy,  the  currency,  the  tariff, 
immigration,  high  license,  woman  suffrage, 
penny  postage,  transportation,  trusts, 
department  stores,  municipal  ownership  of 
franchises,  government  control  of  telegraph. 
Both  tides  of  these  and  many  other  questions  com- 
pletely debated.  Directions  for  organizing  and 
conducting  debating  society,  with  by-laws  and  parlia- 
mtntary  rules.  No  other  book  like  it.  Enlarged  ed.   $1.50* 


2»  COKII^ 


Soogt  o(  All  tlie  Colieztu  A^^te;  ed.  contains  the  Boota  ! 
A  welcome  gift  in  any  home  I  Everyone  likes  a  college 
song,  and  this  book  is  an  ideal  gift  to  place  on  the 
piano  for  one*i  friends  to  enjoy,  eren  though  one 
sings  not  himself.   Words  and  music  throughout.  $  J^. 

Niw  edition  with  X04  songs  added  for  67  other  colleges.  Over 
seventy  college  presidents  have  purchased  this  volume  to  have  at 
their  homes,  for  the  students  on  social  occasions.  Fourteen  edi- 
ticnt  have  gone  into  many  thousands  of  homes.  If  you  have  a 
piano  but  do  not  play^  the  pianola  and  other  **  piano-players'' 
will  play  many  0/ these  songs  for  you  and  your  friends  to  sing. 

Compiled  by  college  men,  endorsed  by  college 
presidents,  'rah-'rah'd-by  college  students,  brothered 
by  college  alumni,  sistered  by  college  alumnae,  adopted 
and  programed  by  college  glee  clubs  everywhere; 
by  local  clubs,  choral  societies,  and  singing  classes. 
Contains  all  the  dear  old  familiar  songs,  as  well  as 
the  popular  new  songs  typical  of  alma  mater  in 
colleges  east,  west,  south,  north.  Many 
old  favorite  tunes  with  new  catchy,  up- 
to-date  words  —  serious,  sentimental, 
humorous ;  also  the  *rah^  *rah  kind. 
Yale  men  know,  and  the  New  Haven  Union  says : 
"The  question  of  what  in  the  world  to  give  a 
friend  is  solved  by  the  publication  of  songs  of 
ALL  THB  COLLBGB8,  whtch  is  Suitable  alike  for 
the  collegian  of  the  past,  for  the  student  of  the 
present,  and  for  the  boy  (or  girl)  with  hopes, 
also  for  the  music-loving  sister  and  a  fellow^s  best 
girl."  Another  college  paper:  ^^  They  ring 
true/**  Says  the  Principal  of  a  famous  private 
school:    **//  incites  to  college.**    Durable  cloth. 

Songs  of  theWestern  Colleges.  Durable  cloth  binding,  $  J,25. 

Songs  of  the  Eastern  Colleges*  Novel,  durable  cloth,  %\2S^ 
These  two  books  present  an  ideally  complete  por- 
trayal of  the  musical  and  social  side,  the  joyous  side, 
of  the  student  life  in  our  Western  and  Eastern 
colleges  respectively.  Plenty  of  the  old  favorites  of 
all  colleges,  while  crowded  with  the  new  songs. 

To  own  all  three  above  books  is  to  possess  the  most  complete, 
the  most  adequate  illustration  ever  attempted  of  this  phase  of  the 
genius,  the  spirit  of  Young  America. 

New  Songs  for  College  Glee  Cubs.    Paper.     50  cents* 

Twenty  humorous  hits,  besides  others,  sentimental  and 
serious.  Not  a  selection  but  has  been  sung  by  some  glee 
club  locally  to  the  delight  of  an  **  encoring  audience."  . 

Glee  Club  leaders  will  appreciate  a  collection  every  piece  in 
which,  by  the  severe  test  of  both  rehearsal  and  concert,  is  right 
—the  musical  notation,  the  harmony  of  the  voice  parts,  the 
syllabification,  the  rhvthm,  the  rhyme,  the  inatrumentation,  and 
last,  but  not  leMt  wita  aadieacet,  the  cmtcAonativenett^ 


Of  Two  Hundred  Books 

On     Pedagogy 

There  is  none  we  would  sooner  put 
into   the    hands    of   a   young   teacher 

To  many  young  teachers,  "pedagogy"  was  and  is  a 
term  to  conjure  by ;  its  acquisition  represents  hours  of 
hard,  dry  reading  and  study  ;  life's  pleasures  say  **  don't," 
duty  says  **  do";  and  between  the  conflict  of  desires,  the 
course  is  frequently  decided  by  the  first  book  which  is 
attempted.  It  must  be  confessed  that  much  that  is  found 
under  pedagogy  were  better  never  read  by  the  young 
teacher,  but  seeley*s  foundations  of  education  is  not 
so  accounted.  The  book  is  for  young  teachers,  and  its 
conception  and  execution  are  admirable.  Philosophy, 
experience,  illustration  are  blended  in  an  exceedingly 
interesting  manner.  No  teacher,  young  or  old,  but  will 
have  a  higher  conception  of  his  work  after  reading  the 
book.  It  is  an  inspiration,  it  is  practical,  it  comes  from 
a  man  who  knows  what  he  wants  to  say  and  how  to  say  it. 
The  young  teacher  who  begins  a  course  of  reading  with 
this  book,  must  read  others,  because  of  interest  awakened 
and  stimulated  by  Doctor  Seeley.  Of  two  hundred  books 
on  pedagogy  on  our  shelves,  there  is  none  we  would  sooner 
put  into  the  hands  of  a  young  \t,2x^tx,^^Education 
{Boston),  April,  igo2. 


The  Foundations  of  Education 

BY  LEVI    SEELEY,   PH.   D. 

Author  of  **  History  of  Education" 

Professor  of  Pedagogy  in  the  New  Jersey  State  Normal  Schoci 


CLOTH— Price    $1.00    Postpaid— TWBLVSMO. 


HINDS,  NOBLE  &  ELDREDGE,  Publishers  of 

Gordy's  New  Psychology,  $1.25 
Stout's  Manual  of  Psychology,  I1.50 

31-33*35  West  15TH  Strbbt  New  York  City 


I  Vh  most  Popular  golleflc  $oiigi 


The  Most  Popular  College  Songs       .       •       •  f  .50 

50  New  College  Songs     ----..  .50 

Songs  of  ALL  the  Colleges         ....  1.50 
Songs  of  the  WESTERN  Colleges           •        .        •1.25 

Songs  of  the  EASTERN  Colleges         ...  1.25 

SCHOOL  Songs  with  COLLEGE  FUvor       -       .  .50 

Songs  of  the  Flag  and  Nation          -        •        -        .  .50 

100  New  Kindergarten  Songs      ....  |.00 

Kew  Songs  for  CoUege  Glee  Clubs     -        .        .  .50 

Kew  Songs  for  Male  Qiiartets          ....  .50 

Songs  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania    -        -  1.50 

Songs  of  the  University  of  Michigan      -        •        •  |.25 

Songs  of  Washington  and  Jefferson  College       -  |.25 

Songs  of  Haverford  College 1,25 

New  Songs  and  Anthems  for  Church  Quartets 

;,  (Ekven  Numbers)  each  .10  to  .30 

HINDS,  NOBLE  &  BLDRBDGB 
•I  .33  -  35  Waal  f  5th  Straat.  Naw  York  Gltr 


UNIVERSITY  OP  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


NOV  IS  1914 


OR?  20 


'ifL 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA  UBRARY 


